Where do the “consensus” numbers come from on economic calendars?

[noob4fx]

Wherever I see a Forex economic calendar they always list the previous number and the consensus number. Where exactly does this consensus number come from? Is it from brokers?

[4xfanatic]

Companies like Bloomberg and Reuters create surveys on economic and market expectations. Most of the websites and other media use these numbers and post them. This is where those consensus numbers that you see are coming from.

[noob4fx]

Sweet. I never knew that. But who do Bloomberg survey? Economists?

[JJones543]

Yeah, major banks and financial institutions have teams of economists that analyze and discuss economic data all day.

[piplicious]

They call up or email major global investment banks and research firms for their forecasts. After they compile them all they average them out and that’s how they get the consensus.

[dunny]

That’s cool. I wonder how those banks actually come up with a forecast. I can envision a bunch of scientists all crammed in a lab crunching numbers and looking at statistics to come up with some kind of formula, haha. Does anyone know the real answer?

[broberson]

The major global investment banks have teams of economists that meet together to discuss their views. These meetings can take hours or even days. Basically they meet until they can all come up with a number that they can agree on.