Economic intelligence is a global approach to collecting, analysing and disseminating information on economic agents, i.e. producers and consumers, in the context of micro-economics; but also the analysis of macro-economic and sectoral data involving governments and other economic organisations as well as broad sectors of activity. It is more a question of the actions carried out by independent private bodies such as rating agencies and other credit insurance companies working to support businesses on both the domestic and international markets, such as Heuler Hermes, Atradius and the COFACE group, which are world leaders in this field.