Dear Amol,

Qualitative and Quantitative methods often complement each other. Qualitative method allows one to use their judgement and subjective knowledge in forecasting. One can make good use of qualitative method especially when data are sparse for quantitative analysis.

Quantitative method relies on past data and tries to model a complex and dynamic situation. Economic and business models can be tested, and policy analysis can be done using a whole system of equations. Quantitative method tends to explain past behavior well, but forecasting is a different problem.

Dear Amol,

I agree to the explanation provided by Lall B. Ramrattan.

Regard,

Atif

Data are either qualitative or quantitative. Statistical data are essentially quantitative or numerical. For statistical analysis qualitative data must be transformed into a quantitative form. Statistical forecasting must be quantitative and not qualitative. Hence quantitative forecasting is better than qualitative forecasting.

There are formal methods available for forecasting based on quantitative analysis. However, I am unaware of any qualitative forecasting methods. Please I also want to know about qualitative techniques of forecasting (if any).

I agree with all the opinions. I would like to share mine briefly. Both qualitative and Quantitative methods are often complemented each other to arrive a better conclusion, through each of them have their own limitation. There is no globally best or accurate forecasting methods or techniques. As the same time, there is no forecasting techniques without limitations or pitfalls. The extent may vary and a bit higher on qualitative techniques than quantitative ones. There are also cases where one better than the other. For example, in the absence of reliable quantitative data and when we want to forecast technology, we mainly rely on qualitative forecasting.