A Forecast (Forecasting) is an estimate or a prediction of the future conditions and events of production or distribution demand and other factors affecting profit margins and business activities. The Forecast is the work involved in anticipating future events, while establishing objectives are the work necessary to commit to accomplish predetermined results. The accuracy of a projected forecast can be negatively impacted by unexpected events in the financial markets, fluctuation in commodities, or environmental disasters, etc.
Reference Definition by OECD: Forecasting and Prediction are often used synonymously in the customary sense of assessing the magnitude which a quantity will assume at some future point of time: as distinct from “estimation” which attempts to assess the magnitude of an already existent quantity. For example, the final yield of a crop is “forecast” during the growing period but “estimated” at harvest.
Related Definitions in the Project: The Project Management; Project Controls; Project Cost; Project Schedule; Cost Estimate (Estimation)
Example Article of the Forcast:
Forecasters Have No Clue Where Oil Demand Is Really Going (Source: Oil Price on 16 February 2022): By Tsvetana Paraskova - Since the Paris Agreement in 2015, the oil market and investors have seen a growing gap between the highest and lowest demand scenarios from the major forecasting agencies to the point that the gap has widened to a size that is larger than today's oil market, or 100 million barrels per day (bpd), the Riyadh-based International Energy Forum (IEF) said on Wednesday. IEF and Resources for the Future (RFF) published today their 'IEF RFF Outlooks Comparison Report', which compares energy market outlooks prepared by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and OPEC using various modelling techniques and in consultations with those two organizations. The demand "gap" between OPEC's High GDP Growth Case and the IEA's Net Zero Emissions Scenario rises to 84.6 million bpd in 2045, the IEF RFF report notes. The IEA's net-zero scenario says that investments in new oil and gas resources must stop after 2021 if the world is to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. ...
