ZAGREB, January 30, 2018 – Economic Sentiment improved significantly in Croatia in January on the wings of optimism in the manufacturing sector, a report released by the European Commission on Monday notes.
The Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) in Croatia jumped by three points in January 2018 compared to December 2017, reaching 118.5 points and is the highest level since the EC has been monitoring that indicator for Croatia.
The industry confidence indicator almost doubled in that period to 15.9 points from 8.4 points. Consumer confidence too increased in Croatia by 1.4 points to -12.4 points. Construction confidence improved slightly by 0.3 points to 5.4 points.
Retail trade expectation and services confidence edged down compared to December with a drop of 1.1 or 0.9 points respectively. The retail trade index dropped to 12.1 points and in the services sector to 23.7 points.
In January, the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) decreased slightly from its 17-year high in both the euro area (by 0.6 points to 114.7) and the EU (by 0.4 points to 114.7). The slightly milder decline of the EU ESI (-0.4) resulted from a steep improvement of sentiment in Poland (+5.0), while the ESI decreased in the largest non-euro area EU economy, the UK (-0.7).
The softening of euro-area sentiment resulted from markedly lower confidence in services and retail trade, while confidence in industry remained stable. By contrast, confidence increased among consumers and, in particular, construction managers.
