A number of central banks publish their own business conditions survey based on non-random sampling methods. The results of these surveys influence monetary policy decisions and thus affect expectations in financial markets. To date, however, no one has computed the statistical accuracy of these...

As part of a new regular series, the market research agency NOP undertook a survey of public attitudes to inflation for the Bank of England in February. The results show that, given a choice between higher interest rates or higher inflation, four times as many people would prefer interest rates...