Hungarian wages performed well for the whole of 2022.Continue reading
The European Commission published its monthly economic sentiment index on Monday, showing that the main EU indicators and the sub-indices for industry and services were weaker than expected in February. The improvement since November has therefore come to a halt, but not for all regions with Hungary reaching significant successes, reports Hungarian economic site Világgazdaság.
The overall EU sentiment indicator was unchanged compared to January, but the euro area deteriorated slightly from 99.8 to 99.7 points. The EU’s industrial sentiment sub-index deteriorated from minus 0.1 to minus 0.6 points, the services sub-index fell from 8.2 to 7.3 points and construction sentiment stagnated at minus 1.5 points. The aggregate index did not fall, as consumer sentiment improved slightly from minus 22.1 to minus 20.6 points and retail trade sentiment improved from minus 1.6 to minus 0.9 points.
The overall indicator deteriorated markedly in Spain and France, was almost unchanged in Germany, Italy, and Poland and improved in the Netherlands.
Economic Optimism Index In the Euro Area decreased to 99.70 points in February from 99.90 points in January of 2023.https://t.co/tRcVcYIpuk pic.twitter.com/KOCf8KYGP5
— Trading Economics (@tEconomics) February 27, 2023
Hungary stands out somewhat from the negative-trending EU, with data showing excellent performance in February. Economic sentiment has not been this good since September, with the overall index jumping from 89.8 in January to 94.1 points in February.
Sentiment in the services sector showed particularly strong improvement, with the index rising from minus 22.7 to minus 6.3 points, and consumer and retail sentiment improved as well.
However, industrial sentiment was somewhat gloomier, with the index falling from minus 4.8 to minus 9.5 points, and construction from minus 11.5 to minus 12.3 points.
Market economist Liam Peach, an analyst at Capital Economics, said of the data that the GDP-weighted sentiment index for the central European region rose to an eight-month high. He pointed out that the improvement was most impressive for Hungarians, Czechs, and Croats. Peach sees it as only a matter of time before the headline inflation index falls quite rapidly across the region.
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