A REVIEW OF EU BUSINESS SURVEYS METHODOLOGY AND THE CROATIAN EXPERIENCE

Business surveys (B-S) are qualitative economic surveys designed to deal with judgments and expectations of economic agents and consumers. They are a necessary complement to the quantitative statistical surveys. Information from business and consumer surveys
serve as a subset of information set important for evaluation of the state of business climate and activities, economic trends and forecasting. There is a harmonized EU methodology which apply EU member countries and candidate countries, but differences exist
in applied sample designs and methods of sample selection, treatment of non-responses, seasonal adjustment methods etc. The surveys are conducted by various organisations: statistical institutes, statistical bureau offi ces, specialised fi rms, national banks. In this
paper comparatively and detailed are presented the main methodological characteristics of B-S of EU member countries and candidate countries. B-S is carried out in Croatia from 1995. The applied methodology of Croatian B-S is highly harmonised with those of EU methodology. There is the problem of relatively high no-response rate. It is necessary to make some questionnaire revisions. Monthly based surveys should be introduced as well as the investment test. In order to improve the Croatian B-S it is necessary to ensure the organisational and fi nancial stability of conducting the surveys.