BRATISLAVA, August 30, (WEBNOVINY) — The sentiment in the Slovak economy worsened also in August. While in June the indicator did not change versus the previous month, in July its value dropped. The economic sentiment indicator (ESI) thus keeps falling when in August the Statistics Office reported its drop by 2.4 points from July to 91.8 points. The deterioration is attributable to a less favorable evaluation of almost all items except for industry. Nonetheless, the current figure remains 6.1 points behind the long-term average.
The industry confidence indicator surged by 9.6 percentage points in August to 2.3 points coming closely to the long-term average. It was affected by the expected increase in production over the next three months and also by a drop in inventories. The confidence indicator in the construction industry slipped again. Its value dropped 1.5 points from July to minus 47 points due to stronger pessimism regarding the expected employment. It was 23 points behind the long-term average in August.
The business confidence indicator fell 3 percentage points over August. Behind the drop is higher inventories and pessimistic prognoses of the expected business situation for the next three months. The confidence indicator in services dwindled by 8.6 percentage points from the previous month to 16.7 points while its value is 16.3 points below the long-term average. The indicator’s development was influenced by negative evaluation of its all three components while demand dropped most considerably.
Consumer confidence did not pose any significant changes over August when compared with the previous month the consumer confidence indicator dropped 0.8 percentage points to minus 22.7 points over the considerably higher concerns regarding the expected unemployment. However, the pessimism of consumers grew 0.9 points in annualized terms. Their pessimism decreased 1.3 points compared with the long-term average.
SITA
