The leading indicator declined after recovering from December's below 100 long-run average in January. Now at 101.7, it is down from January's firmer revised 103 but remains above 100.

Production industry indicators aside from constructions showed signs of decline, notably in stockpiling and general business indicators. This was partially offset by gains in demand indicators such as foreign demand and private consumption. Within manufacturing, paper and print, chemical and pharmaceutical industry, wood, glass and stone as well as machinery and equipment manufacturing all weakened, while the electrical and metal industry both seem to have improved.

In sum, February's data show the Swiss econommy with a robust outlook even while faced with some headwinds.

The KOF Economic Indicator is a composite leading indicator that aims to identify shifts in the Swiss business cycle around three months ahead of the actual event and, until the start of 2014, was based on twenty-five different economic indicators. The old version of the KOF Economic Indicator used the previous year's GDP growth rate published by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) as a yardstick. The revised measure still incorporates SECO data; however, KOF has changed over to month-on-month changes in GDP which are generated via statistical methods. This reference series is not about exact GDP figures but about the direction and strength of the economic trend. The new objective of the Barometer is the same as the old objective: achieving maximum possible accuracy in predicting the Swiss business cycle.

The indicator measures overall economic activity through a qualitative business survey about developments in the recent past, the current situation and expectations for the next three to six months. Getting an accurate handle on where the economy is headed is inevitably a vital element in all investment decisions and the new measure uses some 219 variables in order to do just that. The set of variables will be reviewed every autumn.

Survey questions relate to production, orders and stocks of finished goods. The KOF Swiss Economic Institute publishes this indicator monthly.