Every year, the Price Observatory publishes a comprehensive overview of competition in different markets for goods and services in Belgium. This horizontal screening analyses more than 600 market sectors (industries and services) of the Belgian economy in order to determine which of them present a higher risk of market failure and therefore require particular attention of public authorities (from a perspective of better market monitoring). A lack of competition in a market can indeed have an impact on the level and the evolution of consumer prices, as well as on the competitiveness of the entire Belgian economy.
Based on data from more than 500,000 companies, the Price Observatory analyses the sectors of the Belgian economy through several dimensions related to competition, such as concentration, changes in market shares of firms and companies profit margins.
This screening is carried out every year since 2014. The reference methodological framework was developed in 2011 as part of the AGORA - MMS Monitoring of Markets and Sectors project.
The latest screening report analyses the Belgian economy over the period 2011-2015.