Economic Sentiment in Romania hits highest level in 27 months

The confidence in the Romanian economy, measured by the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI), reached in December 2019 the highest level since September 2017, namely 104.3 points compared to 101.5 points at the beginning of the last year, according to Eurostat data.

The robust economic sentiment at the end of last year was mainly supported by positive expectations in the sectors of services and retail, while the consumer confidence indicator and construction confidence indicator were in the negative area, and the industrial confidence was hovering around zero. Thus, the overall confidence index rose in December to 104,3, compared to 101.5 in January.

The average indicator calculated for the entire European Union decreased from 106.2 points in January to 100 points in December.

The economic sentiment indicator (ESI) is calculated as an index with a mean value of 100 and standard deviation of 10 over a fixed standardised sample period.

The confidence indicator in the sector of services in Romania, as of December 2019, was 10 percentage points (10pp, meaning that managers expressing positive expectations were 10 percentage points more than those expressing negative expectations), the retail confidence indicator was 8.1pp and the industry confidence indicator was 0.3pp. The expectations expressed by consumers were rather negative (-4.6pp, although up from -14.6pp in January) and the construction confidence indicator (-3.3pp) was also negative.

The Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) is a composite indicator made up of the five sectoral confidence indicators with different weights: industrial confidence indicator, services confidence indicator, consumer confidence indicator, construction confidence indicator and retail trade confidence indicator.

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