Confidence in Slovak economy declining

Confidence in the Slovak economy declined in July among the majority of businesses, with the most notable drops observed in service sector, but also to a lesser degree in trade and industry, the Statistics Office reported on Thursday. Consumers were also more pessimistic than optimistic, with the consumer confidence rate falling to a level of -28.8, a 16-month low. Meanwhile, the only sector to record an improvement was construction. "The seasonally adjusted Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) dropped in monthly terms by 2.7 percentage points to 96.8. In yearly terms, the indicator was four points more pessimistic. The gap below the long-term average also increased. While the indicator was three points below the long-term average in June, the ESI slipped as much as 5.7 points below it in July," the Statistics Office explained.