Bulgaria Business Climate Worsens in October

Bulgaria’s business climate deteriorated in October mainly due to increased pessimism among entrepreneurs in industry and retail trade, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said on Tuesday.

The total business climate indicator dropped by 0.5 percentage points last month compared to September as business confidence in the industrial sector decreased by 1.1 percentage points in comparison with September and business confidence in the retail trade sector fell 2.9 percentage points, the NSI said in a statement.

Most managers in industry and retail trade said they expected selling prices in their sectors to remain unchanged over the next three months.

Entrepreneurs in the industrial sector attributed their increased pessimism to worsened expectations about the state of their companies over the next six months. However, their assessment of the orders inflow over the last three months is more optimistic which is accompanied by improved expectations about production activity over the next three months.

In October, retailers had more pessimistic assessments and expectations about the state of their companies and their forecasts concerning sales and orders placed with suppliers over the next three months also were more reserved. Entrepreneurs in the retail sector pointed to uncertain economic environment, insufficient demand and tight competition as reasons for their increased pessimism.

Unlike industry and retail, business confidence indicator for the construction sector increased by 2.1 percentage points in October compared to the previous month due to the more favourable construction entrepreneurs’ assessments and expectations.

Most managers in the construction sector expect selling prices to remain flat over the next three months.

In October, business sentiment in the services sector remained little changed from September. Managers were more optimistic about the development of their business over the next six months and their expectations about demand for services over the next three months improved.

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