
The economic sentiment indicator for September this year increased by 0.6 points, continuing the positive trend of recent months. Thus, the figures of the Bank of Albania through the "Consumer and Business Confidence Survey" signal that this indicator is about 1.2 points above the long-term historical average and this growth was mainly driven by increased confidence in the main sectors such as industry, construction and services.
After processing the data from "Scan Intel", the changes of other indicators are presented as follows: The confidence indicator in trade registered a decrease of 2.3 points in September, after the increase of 6.1 points it had last month.
Even after this drop, the indicator remains about 10 points above the historical average, showing a stable confidence in the trade sector. This decrease in the confidence indicator in this sector was mainly driven by pessimistic expectations for a possible decrease in the level of employment in the future, while the negative assessment on the current performance of businesses had a smaller impact. On the contrary, the other indicators show an increase, except for the consumer confidence indicator, which maintained the same level as the previous month.
The confidence indicator in the industry recorded an increase of 2.5 points. This indicator is 14 points above the historical average, which reflects more optimistic expectations from businesses for current production and for future orders from exports. On the other hand, the indicator of confidence in services increased by 3.1 percentage points in September. Despite the monthly fluctuations, the level of the indicator remains 18 percentage points above the historical average
While the increase for the indicator of confidence in construction was a modest 1.2 points. This increase came mainly from the optimism of businesses for the current activity in construction. Expectations for employment in this sector have improved, while expectations for prices have marked a slight decrease, suggesting stability in the labor market, but with a softening price trend in the future.