Services, construction continue to drag sentiment
Source: Financial Mirror
Economic sentiment in Cyprus deteriorated for the second month in a row, as the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI-CypERC) declined by 1.6 points in September to 102.1, from 103.7 in August.
The Economics Research Centre of the University of Cyprus said this decline was driven by weakening business confidence in the services and construction sectors.
The fall in the Services Confidence Indicator for the second consecutive month was due to worsening assessments of firms’ recent performance (business situation, turnover), despite an improvement in turnover expectations.
The small decrease in the Retail Trade Confidence Indicator mainly resulted from downward revisions in sales expectations.
The Construction Confidence Indicator declined for the second month in a row, owing to deteriorating views on firms’ order book levels and downward revisions in employment expectations.
The new increase in the Industry Confidence Indicator reflected improved assessments of the current levels of order books and the stock of finished products, as well as upward revisions in production expectations.
The Consumer Confidence Indicator increased slightly in September, mainly as a result of more optimistic views about the general economic conditions in the country. Nevertheless, consumers’ expectations about their financial situation deteriorated, and their intentions to make major purchases weakened.
The Economic Uncertainty Indicator for Cyprus rose in September to 15.8 points, from 11.0 in August, reflecting an increase in business uncertainty in the services sector. By contrast, business uncertainty in the remaining sectors as well as consumer uncertainty declined.
The original article: belongs to Financial Mirror .
