The Trade Fair Index

Tasks

The Trade Fair Index describes both the business developments and business expectations of German companies at international consumer and capital goods trade fairs in Germany. It provides an up-to-date evaluation of the trade fair activities of these companies, as well as the six-month trade fair outlook based on their business expectations. These evaluations are facilitated by the fact that the business climate calculated for the “Messe Index” signals the direction in which the economy is developing very effectively.

Methods

The index is calculated by using weighting procedures (in order to achieve a reliable correspondence between the sampling pool and the real distribution according to the official trade fair statistics).

Data Sources

For the investigation, different databases are combined: ifo business survey, exhibitor interviews, expert interviews, exhibitor surveys, data of Messe Frankfurt and data of AUMA.

Publications (in German)

Penzkofer, Horst, "Der »Messe Index«: Ergebnisse 2017 und Ausblick 2018", ifo Schnelldienst 71 (04), 2018, 44–47 | PDF Download

Penzkofer, Horst, "Der »Messe Index«: Ergebnisse 2016 und Ausblick 2017 ", ifo Schnelldienst 70 (05), 2017, 30–33  | PDF Download

Penzkofer, Horst, "Der »Messe Index«: Ein neuer Indikator für Messen in Deutschland", ifo Schnelldienst 69 (04), 2016, 65–69 | PDF Download