Frequently Asked Questions

What is the relationship between Banque Audi and Saghir Advisory Services?

Saghir Advisory Services will be in charge of receiving the monthly responses to the questionnaire, calculating the index and writing a detailed explanation of that month’s index reading. Only one person in Banque Audi will be authorized to receive the number one day prior to its release. This person will be in charge of releasing the latest reading to the press exactly at 12:00 on the first of every month. This very limited access to the date will ensure that any potential leaks of the number will be easily found and isolated.

Is Saghir Advisory Services a trusted party when it comes to such a sensitive report?

Without the credibility of the parties in charge of this project, this survey will quickly lose its effectiveness. Both Banque Audi and Saghir Advisory Services are very comfortable that they have the correct procedures in place to ensure total confidentiality of the report until it becomes widely available to the public on the official release date.

Will the responses be shared with any government agencies?

No. Even though no sales or production number are asked all responses will be kept strictly confidential from both Banque Audi and any government agency.

Is there a cut off date by which I need to fill in the survey?

Respondents are encouraged to complete answering the survey no later than the 15th of the month. Those that don’t respond by this date will be sent automatic friendly reminders to encourage them to do so.

Is this survey restricted to manufacturing companies?

No. Contrary to our original plan, a decision was made to include both manufacturing and service establishments. This will enable us to increase our sample size and improve the quality of our survey. This also happens to be the methodology that other regional countries followed recently.

Why does the performance of the Manufacturing sector correlate highly with GDP even though the size of the sector is not dominant in the economy?

In most economies, the service industry is more stable and less volatile than manufacturing, which has to deal with calibrating the appropriate level of inventories for example. A sudden drop in demand will result in the excessive involuntary buildup of inventories, which companies usually respond to by cutting production and employment.

Will the Index be able to give us an indication of the approximate growth in GDP?

Yes, but not immediately. It will take perhaps 4-5 years of data and a statistical study to assess the correlation and learn how our index tracks the actual GDP data. In the meantime, the index will help track the manufacturing sector and help assess whether it is growing at an accelerated or diminishing pace. Full explanation will be offered with the release of the data each month.

Why Saghir Advisor Services?

In his capacity as the founder of the company, George Saghir, Syrian citezin is ideally suited to launch this project. He has had a 25 year career dealing with this index in several countries. He has done extensive work on this survey in other advanced industrial economies. He has done extensive work on economic research in lieu with his professional interests in global financial markets.