Greece’s economic sentiment index eased to 104.8 points in October from 107.7 in January, the lowest level of the last 14 months, the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE) said.
In the individual business indicators, there is a strong weakening of expectations in construction, while in the rest of the sectors there is a marginal to small improvement.
Consumer confidence declined marginally and fell to the level of last February.
According to IOBE, there are strong uncertainties in the European and international environment that affect individual sectors of the Greek economy in various ways, through demand as well as the cost of financing, energy and raw materials. These are depressing foreign orders and expected sales and making expectations relatively volatile.
In general, however, according to IOBE, a moderate optimism is recorded in the business sector. Despite the slight de-escalation of inflation, the pressure on households’ real incomes due to the high level of prices remains. Their expectations appear to be less positive, although the gradual decline in unemployment allows larger parts of society to have new incomes that compensate for losses in purchasing power due to inflation.
Overall, the evolution of the economic climate will depend on the performance of the economy in the short term, but mainly on whether conditions are created for a stable development course in the medium term, it is noted in the IOBE survey.
