Service Providers of the Information Society - Economic Situation Remains Stable for Service Providers of the Information Society
Information EconomyThe economic situation among companies in the economic sector service providers of the information society overall remains stable in the first quarter of 2010. The current business situation receives slightly poorer evaluations compared to the previous quarter. However, survey participants expect the economic situation to improve in the second quarter of 2010.
These are the findings of a business survey among service providers of the information society, conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in cooperation with the credit reference agency Creditreform, Neuss, in March 2010 (see survey details at the end of press release).
The survey results of ZEW and Creditreform contribute to the ZEW-IDI, a sentiment indicator for the economic sector service providers of the information society. The ZEW-IDI slightly decreases by 1.3 points to 57.1 points in the first quarter 2010. This indicates that the companies still evaluate the economic situation favourably despite the decrease. The fact that the ZEW-IDI stands above 50 points indicates a better economic sentiment in comparison to the previous quarter. Due to an increase of 0.9 points to 62.5 points, the partial indicator reflecting the business expectations for the second quarter 2010 considerably stands above 50 points. "The good value of the partial indicator for business expectations, which increased in comparison to the previous quarter, indicates that companies expect the turnover situation and the demand situation to improve in the second quarter 2010" says Miruna Sarbu, researcher at ZEW in Mannheim. In contrast, the ZEW-IDI partial indicator for the current business situation has worsened. It decreased by 3.3 points to 52.1 points in the first quarter of 2010. This indicates that the companies evaluate the current business situation more pessimistically compared to the previous quarter.
The economic sector service providers of the information society consists of ICT service providers and knowledge intensive service providers. The current economic sentiment among ICT service providers, including software businesses, IT services, ICT specialised trade and telecommunication services, has slightly worsened in the first quarter of 2010. The respective sentiment indicator decreased to 58 points. Compared to the previous quarter, this is a decline by 2.2 points. The ICT service providers' negative evaluation of the current turnover situation and in particular the pessimistic evaluation of the demand situation are responsible for this decrease. The economic situation for knowledge intensive service providers, including tax consultants, accountants, management consultants, architects and advertising companies, continues to be stable, even though the sentiment indicator for this subsector declined by 0.6 points to 55.4 points in the first quarter of 2010. Reason for the slight decline is the less favourable business situation. The partial indicator reflecting the current business situation decreases by 2.2 points to a value of 49.7 points in the first quarter of 2010. This value indicates a worsening of the business situation compared to the previous quarter. However, the business outlook for the second quarter 2010 is considerably better for the knowledge intensive service providers. The partial indicator for the business expectations in the second quarter 2010 climbs 1.3 points to 61.8 points.
The ZEW-IDI
The ZEW-IDI is composed of the four components turnover situation, demand situation, turnover expectations and demand expectations (each in comparison with the previous and following quarter, respectively). They are used for the calculations with equal importance. Turnover situation and demand situation form a partial indicator reflecting the business situation. The geometrical mean of the business situation and the business expectations amounts to the value of the ZEW indicator of the service providers of the information society. The sentiment indicator can adopt values between 0 and 100. Values greater than 50 indicate an improved economic sentiment compared to the previous quarter, values smaller than 50 indicate deterioration compared to the previous quarter.
The economic survey conducted by the ZEW/Creditreform
About 900 businesses participate in the quarterly survey. The economic sector service providers of the information society consists of information and communication technology (ICT) service providers (businesses of the sub-sectors software and IT-services, ICT specialized trade and telecommunication services) and knowledge intensive service providers (businesses of the sub-sectors tax consultancy and accounting, business consultancy, architectural offices, technical consultancy and planning, research and development and advertising). An overview of the ZEW/Creditreform business survey is provided on the ZEW project site. For further information in German language only, please consult our homepage at www.zew.de/dienstleister.
Comment on the projection
To ensure the analyses' representativity, the ZEW projects the answers of the survey participants with the turnover value of the businesses with regard to the entire economic sector service providers of the information society. The phrasing "share of the businesses" therewith reflects the share of turnovers of the businesses.
For further information please contact
Miruna Sarbu, Phone: +49 (0)621/1235-334, E-mail: sarbu@zew.de