A measurement of resource utilisation is often used to provide a summary of measurements of developments in the real economy. This attempts to measure to what extent the productive resources in the economy – labour and capital – are used in relation to the level that is sustainable in the long run. However, it is not possible to directly observe resource utilisation and there are several methods for measuring resource utilisation in the economy. It is therefore important to study a number of different measurements.
The indicator produced – the RU indicator summarising the information in survey data and labour market data – has the advantage that it is revised only slightly when new information is received and that it can be updated relatively quickly. The RU indicator can thus provide a good complement to other measures of resource utilisation, but it should be pointed out that it does not reflect the Riksbank’s overall assessment. A number of other measures are also described in the Monetary Policy Reports and Updates.
The RU indicator will be published on the Riksbank's website 4 times a year, at the end of January, April, July and October.