After several months, the economic sentiment indicator improved in August when its value rose 0.6 percentage points to 97.1 points compared with the previous month. The Statistics Office of the Slovak Republic specified that the indicator increased under the influence of the positive development in retail business and the stable level in construction. In a y/y comparison, the economic sentiment indicator shrank by 11.5 percentage points. It is lower by 3.9 percentage points in comparison with the long-term average.
The confidence indicator dropped throughout August for the second month in a row. According to the Statistics Office, its value dropped one points to 0.3 percentage points. The development was affected by negative expectations of production over the next three months and by a slight increase in stock. Nonetheless, Opinions of respondents of the current industrial production trend are more optimistic than in the survey in July. The business balance of opinions of production trend increased slightly after the last year´s slump. It rose 5 to 38 points in relation to July and reached 18 points over the level of long-term average. Higher evaluations are mostly in manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products, metal and metal products and manufacture n.e.c.; mostly in enterprises employing 500 - 999 people. Manufacture of transport equipment and chemical industry assume a considerable decrease in production.
Expectations of the development of industrial production over the next three months continued to decrease and reached the second lowest level since July 2005, when the balance dropped 8 points. Producers of transport equipment and manufacture of textiles and clothing expect the most considerable decrease in production. On the contrary, respondents of manufacture of electrical and optical equipment and manufacture n.e.c. mostly expect a rise over the next three months, in the Trnava region by regions.