Economic sentiment improves in Romania, consumer confidence also up in June

The Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) has climbed again in Romania during June, against a backdrop of marked improvement across the EU. The overall ESI, which measures responses from consumers and managers across business sectors, has risen in Romania to 96.4 from 95.5 in May. The figure is ahead of the EU averages: sentiment increased by 1.8 points in both the in eurozone to 91.3 and in the EU27 to 92.6. In Romania, consumer confidence is up by 0.8 points, while industry sentiment has risen by a whole point. Retail trade confidence has slipped by 0.9 points, as has sentiment in the services sector – down 1 point. Finally, the indicator for the construction sector has improved the most: up 1.3 points. The ESI for Romania has varied between a high of 96.5 in July 2012 and a low of 92.9 in October 2012 over the last 12 months. Across the EU there was a brightening mood across sectors. The five biggest eurozone economies have all seen ESI increases during June: Spain (+2.5), Italy (+1.7), France (+1.3), Germany (+1.1) and the Netherlands (+0.9). However the two biggest non-eurozone economies, the UK and Poland, have both seen a worsening in economic sentiment, down by 0.7 and 0.6 points respectively. editor@romania-insider.com photo source: photoxpress