The economic sentiment indicator dropped 0.9 percentage points within the last month to 99.1 points, the Statistics Office informed. The month-on-month decline was influenced by the negative development of confidence indicators in individual sectors. The economic sentiment indicator dropped 7.7 points year-on-year and 1.9 percentage points compared with the long-term average, the SITA newswire wrote.
The confidence indicator in industry decreased after two months of growth by one point to 4.7 points, going slightly below the long-term average limit. Its development was mainly affected by lower demand for industrial products. The confidence indicator in the building industry shrank by 9.5 points in April to minus 10 percentage points. It still exceeds the long-term average by 12 percentage points.
Decreasing demand for construction output and the expected deceleration of employment growth were behind this development. The confidence indicator in the retail sector dropped 8 points to 22.3 points under the influence of unfavourable development in all of its three components. The confidence indicator in the service sector showed a 4.6 percent drop to 21.7 points due to the negative evaluation of all three indicators contained in its calculations.
In April, consumers in Slovakia were more optimistic than in March. The negative sentiment declined in two items - projected unemployment and projected economic development. The consumer confidence indicator thus increased 0.4 points to minus 9.3 points. Compared with the same period last year, consumer pessimism rose significantly, by 14.7 points. SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
