Economic sentiment declined marginally in February

According to the ERC, in February 2018, the ESI decreased by 0.7 points to 119.1 compared with 119.8 in January, due to the services sector.
 
“The Services Confidence Indicator declined due to firms’ less optimistic views on recent business situation and downward revisions in turnover expectations,” the ERC said.
 
The Retail Trade Confidence Indicator rose marginally as a result of upward revisions in sales expectations.

According to the ERC, the Construction Confidence Indicator increased due to improved assessments of the levels of order books and upward revisions in employment expectations.

The Industry Confidence Indicator remained unchanged compared with January, the ERC said, as firms’ assessments of the levels of current orders and stocks of finished products as well as firms’ future production plans remained broadly at their January levels.

According to the ERC, the Consumer Confidence Indicator rose to a historically high level in February, due to the improvement in consumer confidence which resulted from more optimistic assessments of all components of the Indicator i.e. households’ future financial conditions, future economic conditions in Cyprus, future labour market conditions and savings likelihood.