Looking at the example below:
| Year | Sales (in ‘000 |
| 1 | 14 |
| 2 | 17 |
| 3 | 15 |
| 4 | 23 |
| 5 | 18 |
| 6 | 22 |
| 7 | 27 |
Using the above data to forecast for the eighth (8) year using the least square method. Least squares assumes that the best-fit curve of a given type is the curve that has the minimal sum of the deviations squared (least square error) from a given set of data.
