Ljubljana, 25 July (STA) - Slovenia's business sentiment slipped at the annual and monthly levels in July due to pessimism in the manufacturing sector, but the index does remain 11.9 percentage points above the long-term average.
According to a report from the Statistics Office, the business confidence index dropped by 2.5 percentage points from June and by 1.2 point year-on-year to 10.6 percentage points in July.
The manufacturing sector saw a 1.1-point monthly decline and 1.2-point weakening at the annual level.
Compared to June, consumer confidence cooled by 0.7 points and the indicators were down in retail and construction industries by 0.6 points and 0.2 points, respectively.
Pessimism in the retail sector also weighed down on the sentiment at the annual level (-0.7 pp).
Meanwhile, the annual boost in consumer confidence and construction confidence had a positive impact on the business sentiment index (+0.4 pp and + 0.2 pp, respectively).
Services sector sentiment had no impact on the overall index.
The July survey by the Statistics Office put manufacturing confidence at the lowest level in two years.
The negative trend continues as the value of the indicator has not increased at the monthly level since January. A major limiting factor has been a shortage of skilled workers.