BRATISLAVA, February 21, (WEBNOVINY) — Consumer confidence in Slovakia continued to worsen at the start of the year. According to the Slovak Statistic Office’s consumer barometer, the indicator of consumer confidence in January reached negative 26.6 points, which meant that consumer mood expressed by the indicator deteriorated by 3.1 points from the previous month and by 4.5 points from a year ago. Compared with the situation three months ago, the indicator improved by 1.7 points. This stems from results of a survey which the Statistics Office carried out in early January 2011 on a representative sample of 1,152 respondents aged 16 and more.
The results further show that as much as 63 percent of respondents think that economic situation in Slovakia deteriorated over the last twelve months. Moreover, three in five respondents expect further worsening next year. Consumers expect a negative development in the area of prices, too, when almost a half have reported a moderate growth, 27 percent medium growth and 12 percent considerable growth in prices. In the next period, 90 percent of those polled expect prices to rise.
Slovaks have a negative outlook in connection with development of employment, too. One in two respondents said unemployment would increase over the next twelve months. Expectations regarding the financial situation of households are similar. 70 percent of respondents opine that the time is not right for saving.
According to the provided data from 26 EU countries on the chart of states arranged on the basis of decreasing index of consumer confidence, Slovakia, where the index value represented negative 27.5 points net of seasonal influences, placed 20th. In the European Union as a whole, consumer atmosphere improved two points to negative 12.6 points, thus exceeding the Slovak result by 14.9 points.
SITA
