ZAGREB, January 8, 2020 – Expectations in Croatia’s economy in December 2019 remained virtually unchanged compared to November 2019 riding on the wave of optimism in the construction sector as a counterbalance to pessimism in the retail sector, says a report released by the European Commission on Wednesday. The Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) rose in December by 0.3 points to 114.4 points. In November it increased by 0.8 points.
Expectations in the construction sector improved the most, with the ESI going up by 4.8 points. The industry sector followed with a growth of 1.1 points.
Consumer sentiment remained almost unchanged compared to November, increasing by 0.2 points.
There was a significant decline in expectations by managers in the retail sector. with a decline in retail confidence of 3.5 points compared to November. Managers expressed significant pessimism in the services sector too, with the ESI falling by 2.2 points, the EC reported.
In December 2019, the ESI remained broadly unchanged in the EU, remaining stable at 100.0 points.
The most marked increase was recorded in services and construction confidence increasing by 1.6 and 1.5 points respectively, followed by retail with an increase of 0.5 points.
Consumer confidence deteriorated slightly by 0.3 points.
A significant decline was recorded in industry confidence, declining by 0.7 points.
The headline indicator for the EU remained stable in December (±0.0) at its long-term average. Concerning the two largest non-euro area EU economies, the ESI worsened in both the UK (-2.4) and Poland (-1.2), the EC reported.
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