The Sales Managers' Indexes provide the earliest monthly data on the speed and direction of economic activity in key growth areas of the world.
The SMI’s (Sales Managers’ Indexes) are compiled and analysed by World Economics and are based on survey data collected from a panel of companies stratifying all Industry Classification Board (ICB) sectors which are weighted to reflect their contribution to national Gross Domestic Product.
Key advantages of the SMI's:
The Headline Sales Managers' Index (SMI) - a composite indicator designed to provide the most up-to-date assessment of business activity.
The Business Confidence Index measures the level of optimism/pessimism among sales for future conditions.
The Market Growth Index monitors the underlying growth of the market segments into which the panel members sell.
The Sales Growth Index defines the speed and direction of overall sales of goods and services made by business during the month.
The Prices Charged Index measures the speed and direction of changes in the current price of goods and services taking into account any discounts offered.
The Staffing Levels Index monitors the level of growth or decline in employment against the same period a year earlier.
The Currency Strength Index evaluates the impact of the host nation currency exchange rate has on business sales and pricing.
The Profit Margins Index indicates gives insight into the level of profit sales teams are able to achieve and as a consequence the contribution companies can make to the country’s economy.
The Sales Managers’ Index results are calculated as diffusion indexes which are calculated by taking the percentage of respondents that report that activity has risen (“Increasing") and adding it to one-half of the percentage that report the activity has not changed (“Unchanged"). Using half of the “Unchanged" percentage effectively measures the bias toward a positive (above 50 points) or negative (below 50 points) index. An example of how to calculate a diffusion index: if the response is 40% “Increasing," 40% “Unchanged," and 20% “Reducing," the Diffusion Index would be 60 points (40% + [0.50 x 40%]). A value of 50 indicates "no change" from the previous month.
The more distant the index is from the amount that would indicate "no change" (50 points), the greater the rate of change indicated. Therefore, an index value of 58 indicates a faster rate of increase than an index value of 53, and an index value of 40 indicates a faster rate of decrease than an index value of 45. A value of 100 indicates all respondents are reporting increased activity while 0 indicates that all respondents report decreased activity.
All data in charts and referenced numerically are un-adjusted index data. All un-adjusted data are available to SMI Subscribers. Once Published, index are never revised or updated. It is advised to use a month Moving Average as a proxy for seasonal adjustments - these data are also available via a subscription.