ECB surveys

ECB surveys provide useful information on diverse topics for which no other harmonised statistics exist.

They include:

• household finance and consumption survey (HFCS)
• survey on the access to finance of enterprises (SAFE)
• bank lending survey (BLS)
• survey of monetary analysts (SMA)
• survey of professional forecasters (SPF)
• survey on credit terms and conditions in euro-denominated securities financing and over-the-counter derivatives markets (SESFOD)
• consumer expectations survey (CES)
• study on the payment attitudes of consumers in the euro area (SPACE)
• use of cash by companies in the euro area

These surveys provide important insights into various issues, such as:

• micro-level information on euro area households’ assets and liabilities
• financing conditions faced by small and medium-sized enterprises
• lending policies of euro area banks
• market participants’ expectations of the future course of monetary policy
• expectations about inflation rates and other macroeconomic variables
• trends in the credit terms offered by firms in the securities financing and over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives markets, and insights into the main drivers of these trends
• the economic and financial behaviour of households in the euro area