In February, the economic sentiment in Slovakia was again more pessimistic than a month ago. The seasonally adjusted economic sentiment indicator (ESI), decreased by 2,9 points to 77,7.  It thus reached the worst value since last June and it remains well-away from its pre-coronavirus pandemic levels. Confidence has fallen sharply again in services, to a lesser extent among consumers, industry and trade. Contrastly in construction it slightly increased. The current value of ESI is lagging behind the value of the corresponding period last year by 19,5 points and it is below the long-term average by 24,8 points.

In February, the confidence indicator in industry decreased after seasonal adjustment by 1 percentage points (p. p.) to -5,3. The indicator´s development was unfavourably influenced mainly by the increase of the finished goods stock. In February compared with the previous month, the seasonally adjusted confodence indicator in construction increased by 0,5 points to -47,0 due to more favourable evaluations of the expected employment. The current result is below the long-term average by 23 points. In February compared with January, confidence indicator in trade dropped by 1 p. p. to 1,0. The drop was affected mainly by the negative evaluations of the current, similarly the expected business activities (from seasonally adjusted data). In February, the seasonally adjusted confidence indicator in services decreased again, its value (-31,7) dropped by 7,4 percentage points  compared with January. The indicator´s development was affected mainly by more pessimistic expectations of the business situation, as well as the demand over the last three months, while the expected demand was evaluated more favourably by respondents.

At the beginning of February, the consumer mood in Slovakia was again slightly more pessimistic than in the previous month. The seasonally adjusted indicator of consumer confidence, decreased by 1,5 points to -38,4, month-on-month. The indicator thus achieved its worst value since its historical slump in last April and it is well below the pre-coronavirus pandemic level. Compared to the previous month, respondents were slightly more pessimistic in their expectations of the general economic situation and household savings and only slightly in their expectations of unemployment. Their expectations of the financial situation of households remained virtually unchanged. Compared to the situation last year, the respondents were more pessimistic by 27,3 points and the current result is below the long-term average by 18,6 points.