The retail confidence index is one of the components of of the indicator of economic sentiment calculated by Eurostat. The formula is an arithmetic mean of the balance value of the responses of large and medium-sized retailers based on the results of their surveys.
Top managers of retail enterprises are asked to assess the current situation in the economy, the structure of demand, income, profit relative to the past and future period.
The index also reflects retailers ' plans for future investments, opening or closing retail outlets.
Frequency, time and format of the Retail Trade Confidence Indicator (RTCI) publication
The European Commission publishes data on the retail trade confidence index every last week of the month.
The time of the indicator's release is 9-00 GMT (12-00 Moscow time), the publication format is a percentage change from the previous period, the significance is 1 point on the three-point scale of the economic indicator.
The impact of the Retail confidence indicator on the Forex market
The retail trade confidence indicator has a weak impact on foreign exchange market, despite the predictive properties of consumer confidence and GDP growth/decline. Investors and traders prefer to use "direct" business and consumer confidence indices, so the publication of RTCI does not affect the exchange rate or volatility Forex currency pairs.