Economic sentiment deteriorated in October

Economic sentiment deteriorated in October, a monthly indicator by the University of Cyprus` (UCY) Economic Research Centre (ERC) shows.

According to the Centre`s bulletin, published on Tuesday, in October 2020, economic sentiment in Cyprus deteriorated as the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI-CypERC) fell by 1.6 points compared with September 2020.

The decrease in the ESI-CypERC resulted from "weaker business confidence in services, retail trade and, to a smaller degree, in industry," it says.

The drop in the Services Confidence Indicator resulted from the deterioration of firms’ views on their past business situation and downward revisions in demand expectations, it adds.

The Retail Trade Confidence Indicator declined "due to firms’ more pessimistic views on their sales over the next three months."

On the other hand, an increase in the Construction Confidence Indicator was driven "by an improvement in firms’ assessments of the levels of order books and upward revisions in employment expectations."

The Industry Confidence Indicator decreased marginally due to downward revisions in production expectations, despite improved assessments of the current level of stocks of finished products, the ERC says.

At the same time, the Consumer Confidence Indicator remained unchanged as the upward revisions in consumers’ expectations about their financial conditions were offset by the downward revisions in their expectations about the general economic conditions in the country.