Stats: Economic Sentiment in Slovakia Improves Again in July

Bratislava, 30 July (TASR) - The sentiment among Slovak entrepreneurs slightly improved again in July, with the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) rising by 1.6 points to 99.4, the Statistics Office reported on Thursday. Confidence improved mainly among entrepreneurs engaged in industry, while sentiment also edged up in the trade sector. Conversely, negative sentiment prevailed among entrepreneurs engaged in services, construction and among consumers. The overall figure in July was 2.6 points more optimistic than in the same period of last year. However, it still lags 6.3 points behind the long-term average. After seasonal adjustments, the confidence indicator in industry increased by 8.7 points to 2 in July chiefly thanks to increase in expected output and drop in stocks of finished products. The seasonally adjusted confidence indicator in services fell by 6 points to 3.7, with month-on-month (m-o-m) worsening posted in almost all of its components. Drop was posted for evaluations of demand for the past three months and expected demand, as well as business situation for the past three months. Conversely, evaluations of employment developments were more positive than a month ago. Meanwhile, the confidence indicator in trade rose by 1.3 points from June to stand at 0. Improvement was seen in two of its three components. The respondents evaluated positively a trend in business activities over the past three months, as well as stocks of finished products. Business activities improved particularly among respondents engaged in the repairs and maintenance of motor vehicles and in the retail sale of cultural and recreational goods in specialised stores. The stocks of finished goods decreased mainly in as in the sale of motor vehicles and in their repairs and maintenance. Conversely, expected business activities were evaluated negatively. The confidence indicator in construction fell by 2.5 points to -7 in July under the influence of negative evaluations of expected employment. Slovak consumers were slightly more pessimistic in July when compared to June, with the seasonally adjusted indicator going down by 0.1 point m-o-m to -27.4. It is still 7.5 points below the long-term average. Consumers were more pessimistic about two of the four components of the indicator. They were mainly more pessimistic in their evaluations regarding the development of their personal finances in terms of both their savings and the overall financial situation. The even sharper decline was prevented by more positive expectations regarding unemployment developments and developments of the overall economic situation. ko