Indicator of willingness to buy in the Netherlands 2006-2016

The source adds the following information: "Willingness to buy is the balance of positive and negative replies as a percentage of the total, per month. Willingness to buy is a component indicator of consumer confidence. Each month the Consumer Confidence Survey asks approximately one thousand respondents two questions concerning their own financial situation. Additionally, the consumer is asked whether he considers it the right time to make large purchases. The balance of positive and negative answers as a percentage of the total number of answers to each question is established. Willingness to buy is the arithmetic average of the three balances and a fair indicator of consumer expenditure on durables."

The source adds: "Willingness to buy is calculated as follows: the first step in calculating the index is to convert the frequency distribution of the scores for each question into a percentage distribution. Subsequently, for each question, the percentage falling into the response categories 'clearly better' and 'slightly better' (henceforth: Pp) and the percentage falling into the response categories 'slightly worse' and 'clearly worse' (henceforth: Pn) are aggregated (unweighted).

The consumer confidence index is the average of the balances of the positive (Pp) and negative (Pn) replies to five subquestions, expressed as a percentage.

The indicator ranges from -100 to +100. If the value of the indicator is zero, the number of pessimists and optimists is the same. Thus, neutral answers and the response category 'do not know' are not taken into account."