John Giannarakis

Now-Casting.com is a new, online service delivering high frequency, short-term forecasts for the world’s major economies – in real time. These forecasts (or ‘now-casts’) are generated automatically by a state-of-the-art econometric model. The model was originally developed for use by central banks, amongst whom it is now widely used. The latest version of the model, which is used by Now-Casting.com, has been extensively tested and shown to be at least as accurate as the best judgemental forecasts, but considerably more timely. It draws on a large and diverse set of input series, including both hard and soft data: everything from employment figures to industrial surveys (http://now-casting.com/methodology). Its implementation at Now-Casting is fully automatic: the input data are updated automatically and the model runs continuously, constantly updating forecasts. If there is a signal to be picked up in the economic data flow, the Now-Casting model tends to pick it up weeks or months before other forecasts. The service is designed for policy makers and professional investors who need a clear and up to the minute gauge of the real economy, and who also want a transparent and quantitative way to read the news flow. Now-Casting.com was founded by Professors Lucrezia Reichlin of the London Business School and Domenico Giannone of Universite Libre de Bruxelles. Together they developed the now-casting model and have published a series of academic papers on its theoretical basis and empirical results (http://now-casting.com/research). Professor Reichlin was Director General of Research at the European Central Bank from 2005 to 2008, and has acted as consultant to a number of other central banks. Saverio Simonelli of the University of Naples and Jasper McMahon, CEO of Now‐Casting.com, are also co-founders. To check Now-Casting’s weekly Eurozone now-cast, go to: http://now-casting.com/countries/euro-area/weekly-chart