The confidence in the industry sector raised slightly

The confidence in the industry sector raised from 2,3 to 3,3 percent in September. The index stays at the slightly positive three-percent level without larger fluctuation but also without a significant change towards stronger values.

A moderate optimism is to be observed in the sector since the end of the last year and it represents without a doubt a good news for the next development of the Czech economy where the business sentiment and sales expectations are one of the most important factors in the decision process of the companies management, the Confederation of Industry analyst Bohuslav Čížek wrote in a commentary.

Despite some precaution and differentiation among the Czech firms, we could confirm a moderate optimism among the member companies of the Confederation of Industry. The September improvement is, nevertheless, not so significant that we could draw specific conclusions from it.

The improvement of the industry sector is such that the business confidence is not decreasing despite of  the possible impact of the EU sanctions against Russia, lower growth tempo of the eurozone and sinking industry optimism index in Germany.

We thus expect that the contract volume and the industrial production will raise further in the Czech Republic, although the tempo of growth will slow down at the end of the year. It has been confirmed by the last confidence indexes published by the Czech Statistical Office (ČSÚ) where the evaluation of the overall economic situation has been less optimistic but the expectations for the next three or six months raised.