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Economic sentiment in Cyprus improves in July

29/07/2020 15:57

Economic sentiment in Cyprus improved in July driven by improved confidence in services and consumers, the University of Cyprus’ Economics Research Centre (ERC) says in a bulletin for the month.

“In July 2020, economic sentiment in Cyprus improved as the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI-CypERC) increased by 4.5 points compared with June 2020,” the bulletin reads.

The increase in the ESI-CypERC, the ERC says, “was driven by confidence improvements in services and among consumers.” 

The increase in the Services Confidence Indicator resulted from firms’ “less adverse assessments of their recent turnover and upward revisions in demand expectations.”

The marginal drop in the Retail Trade Confidence Indicator was due to worsening views on past sales and current stock levels, despite the upward revisions in sales expectations, it says.

The Construction Confidence Indicator fell as firms’ assessments of the level of order books deteriorated further and future employment plans were more pessimistic, it adds.

According to the ERC the Industry Confidence Indicator remained unchanged as the improved views on the current level of order books and upward revisions in production expectations were offset by more adverse assessments of the current level of stocks of finished products.

The improvement in Consumer Confidence Indicator was mainly driven by “upward revisions in consumers’ expectations about their future financial conditions and the future economic conditions in Cyprus,” the bulletin reads. 

In July, it continues, “uncertainty in services, construction and industry declined; the largest decrease was recorded in services.”

Uncertainty among firms in the retail trade sector and among consumers increased.

“Uncertainty in all sectors and among consumers remains elevated compared to a similar period in 2019,” it notes.