Economic Sentiment Rises in Greece in July

The Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) for the month of July in Greece recorded a significant improvement, according to European Commission data released on Tuesday.

Overall, the ESI decreased slightly in both the euro area (by 0.6 points to 102.7) and the EU (by -0.3 points to 102.0).

“The deterioration of euro-area sentiment resulted from lower confidence in industry, services, retail trade and construction, while confidence improved slightly among consumers,” the Commision said.

In Greece, the index stood at 105.3 points from 101.0 in June and was positively influenced by confidence in services (at 22.1 from 7.9 points), construction (at -48.1 from -55.5 points), industry (up 1.7 points to -0.6 points) and retail trade (up 13.7 points to 9.2 points), while confidence also improved among consumers (to -20.2 points from -27.8 points).

Amongst the largest euro-area economies, the ESI rose in the Netherlands (+1.7), Italy (+1.4) and Spain (+0.6), while it decreased markedly in Germany (−2.4) and was unchanged in France (+0.0).

The ESI is a composite indicator made up of five sectoral confidence indicators with different weights: Industrial confidence indicator, Services confidence indicator, Consumer confidence indicator, Construction confidence indicator and Retail trade confidence indicator. It is calculated as an index with mean value of 100 and standard deviation of 10 over a fixed standardised sample period.