Business monitoring by the Bank of Russia: The analysis of the mineral mining sector

In view of the global economic turbulence, leading indicators of business activity acquire critical importance. Central banks all over the world complete the official statistics with the regular questionnaire surveys of industries, which provide real-time and first-hand information on economic situation. In Russia this function is performed by the Bank of Russia’s Program of Business Monitoring—an inquiry system based on the best foreign practices. The mechanism of the questionnaire routine implemented by the Bank of Russia to obtain and use business judgements on decision-making in monetary and credit policy is described. A sampling of businesses–respondents is analyzed, and the practical application of the business monitoring data for the evaluation of the current economic situation is discussed. The use of the leading indicators of business activity by central banks is illustrated, and a calculation procedure is described for the business climate index as one of such indicators.