BRATISLAVA, October 28, (WEBNOVINY) — The sentiment in the Slovak economy has deteriorated in October, whereby it has been in decline since July. The economic sentiment indicator decreased by 0.7 percentage point month-on-month to 89.7 points. As the Statistics Office of the Slovak Republic further informed, this is the lowest level since April 2010. Responsible for the decline is pessimism of entrepreneurs in trade and partly also in services. Year-on-year, views of respondents were more pessimistic by 2.5 points and the current figure is 8.3 points below the long-term average.
Industrial confidence indicator in October increased by one percentage point to 0.7 points. The reason, according to the Statistics Office is expected increase in production over the next three months. The confidence indicator in the construction sector increased by 6.5 points to minus 37.5 points compared to the revised value of September. The increase resulted from optimism concerning expected employment and rising demand. The result for October is 13.5 points below the long-term average.
In trade, the confidence indicator fell by six points and for the second time this year fell below the long-term average. Development of this indicator was adversely affected by a high level inventories and pessimistic forecasts of the economic situation over the next three months. The value of the confidence indicator in services fell again in October, compared to last month, by one percentage point to 12 points. The decline of the indicator was affected negatively by expected development of the business situation, which was partially offset by favorable expectations of current demand that remained at the level of the previous month.
Consumer confidence indicator continued to decline in October, as its value has decreased over the previous month by 5.2 points to minus 30.1 points. The reason was increased concern of respondents in the evaluation of all four components, i.e., expected economic situation and unemployment in Slovakia, prospects of savings and projected financial situation of households. Pessimism of the population has increased compared with the same period last year by 1.8 points, as well as compared with the long-term average.
SITA
