The new Thomson Reuters Ipsos PCSI will help financial institutions, private business and government bodies measure 11 key conditions as perceived by primary consumers in 24 countries in order to deliver the most comprehensive data set available on current and future country and personal economic conditions, intentions and expectations.

Securing the new Ipsos exclusive agreement supports Thomson Reuters vision to connect and enable the global financial community and builds on the growing portfolio of solutions that Thomson Reuters provides to assist firms in measuring consumer sentiment. The PCSI is the only product providing aggregated global consumer sentiment data on a historical basis. The data will be exclusively available through Thomson Reuters Datastream Data Loader (DDL) or Datastream Professional and aims to provide financial institutions and private businesses alike with guidance on investment decisions.

"The PCSI's level of accuracy over the years makes it a well respected forecast of personal, national, and global economic conditions, and we at Thomson Reuters are thrilled to be able to distribute the index through our well established Datastream channels," said Debra Walton, managing director and head of Enterprise Content at Thomson Reuters. "The PCSI will be hugely beneficial to our clients, allowing them to drive their decision making process by drawing correlations to develop forward thinking investment strategies before market moving shifts in consumer sentiment."

Analysis performed on the PCSI data over the past two years has found numerous correlations between the findings of PCSI and marketplace primary consumer activities; highlighting the potential predictive power of the data collated. The PCSI offers clients all over the world a unique insight due to its global availability.

The 24 country PCSI is a composite index of 11 questions that have been running monthly in 22 countries since March 2010, in Brazil since 2005 and in the United States since 2002. Questions used in the PCSI survey are focused on areas such as individual's appraisal of their homeland's current economic status, their own personal economic status, and their future expectations for the local economy. Additional questions focus on consumer confidence, job security and investments in the future.

The Sentiment Index offers clients all over the world a unique insight due to its global availability.

The monthly data output is derived from a balanced online sample that is weighted to the latest Census information of the general population in each country. The sample is aged 18-64 in the US and Canada, and age 16-64 in all other countries. Of the 24 countries surveyed 15 are representative of the general population: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Poland, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States with the remaining nine of Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Turkey are comprised of more urban, educated and higher income respondents referred to as "Upper Deck Consumers" relative to their country general population.

"Ipsos is pleased to have an exclusive arrangement with Thomson Reuters to deliver the world's only monthly 24-country Primary Consumer Sentiment Index" said Dr. Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Global Public Affairs. "Since its launch in March 2010, the 11 conditions identified with the index have already found real marketplace correlations in each country that can range from consumer spending and automobile registrations to unemployment and credit demand. We share a common principle with Thomson Reuters of wanting to deliver the best solution and service to our customers and are thrilled to be joining forces to continue to deliver early and exceptional insight and value for its clients."