Economic sentiment in Croatia improved in November on the back of confidence in the services sector and optimism of construction companies a European Commission survey showed on Wednesday.

The Economic Sentiment Index (ESI) in Croatia increased by 1.5 points from October to 107.8 points in November, the EC reported.

The greatest optimism was expressed by business leaders in the services industry improving business ratings and demand in the past three months and forecasting an upswing at the end of the year, which was reflected in the growth of the index by 5.2 points.

Almost the same growth was recorded by the index of the construction sector, by 5.0 points, based on the trend of activity compared to previous months.

Consumers, on the other hand, plan to save less and expect a better financial situation of households in the next 12 months, which raised the growth of the index by 2.7 points.

Managers in the industry expect weaker production in the coming period, and the result is a drop in the index by 1.3 points. The sentiment in retail also worsened slightly, reflected in the index’s drop of 0.6 points.

Business leaders expect to hire significantly more workers in the coming months, according to a two-point increase in the EEI index. They also believe that the uncertainty in business is significantly reduced compared to October, which was reflected in the drop of the EUI index by 5.1 points compared to October.

Slight improvement in eurozone and EU

The economic climate in the eurozone and the EU slightly improved in November, and the indices rose by 0.3 and 0.5 points, respectively, according to the European Commission’s survey.

The most significant improvement was the consumer sentiment, whose index increased by 0.9 points in the eurozone and by 1.1 points in the EU.

Among the leading economies of the EU, sentiment improved the most in the French and Polish economies, by 2.0 and 1.7 points, respectively.

The sentiment in Spain worsened by 1.5 points, in Germany, by half a point, and in Italy it was almost unchanged compared to October.