Survey data and short-term forecasts of Swedish GDP growth

In this article, we evaluate forecasting models for Swedish GDP growth which make use of data from Sweden’s most important business survey, the Economic Tendency Survey. Employing nine years of quarterly real-time data, we conduct an out-of-sample forecast exercise. Results indicate that the survey data have informational value that can be used to improve forecasts, thereby confirming the empirical relevance of survey data for GDP forecasters.