October’s consumer barometer reveals precious little change in confidence in the economy since the indicator slipped into negative territory in September (-0.7), down from a positive 2.2 in August. Confidence recovered only slightly to reach 0.4 in October, Statistics Finland said Monday.
Consumer confidence came in at 3.8 last October while the long term average looks distant at 11.9.
Consumers’ outlook improved slightly only with respect to one confidence indicator: the prospects for the national economy. Otherwise consumers remained pessimistic about unemployment and inflation.
Just under half believed that now would be a good time to purchase durable goods, roughly half were positive about their ability to save and a similar proportion thought the time ripe for drawing down on credit.
Business confidence struggling to recover
Meanwhile the main private sector business lobby the EK said Monday that its confidence indicators were still in the red, although there were some positive signs in October.
The Confederation of Finnish Industries EK noted that there were still no signs of sustainable recovery in the economy in October.
According to chief economist Penna Urrila, indicators showed a consistent downward trend during the course of 2014 and were now weaker than at the beginning of the year.
In spite of the gloomy outlook, there was a slight uptick in confidence in some sectors. Industry leaders for example registered a confidence factor of -7, up from -11 in September.
In construction, one of the sectors hardest hit by the ongoing economic malaise, confidence improved marginally to -29 from -34 one month earlier.
The retail sector showed little change, with confidence at -22 in October compared to -23 in September, while services registered -4, up from -9 in the previous month.