title: ECB Survey of Professional Forecasters
text: # ECB Survey of Professional Forecasters
  
  The ECB Survey of Professional Forecasters, simply called the Survey of Professional Forecasters (SPF), is a quarterly survey of macroeconomic forecasts for the economy of Europe issued by the European Central Bank (ECB).
  
  ## History
  
  The ECB Survey of Professional Forecasters was started in 1999.
  
  In 2007, the ECB published a review of the survey based on eight years of experience.
  
  ## Reception
  
  ### Academic research
  
  The ECB Survey of Professional Forecasters has been the subject of some academic research, including a 2013 paper considering whether there was a better way of combining the forecasts than simply taking the average. They found some methods of combining that did better than the average, but noted that it was not clear that these methods would continue to beat the average in the future.
  
  