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Bulgaria's July Business Climate Shows Signs of Recovery

Thursday, Jul 29, 2010

The business climate in Bulgaria is showing some signs of recovery in July with an increase of 1,4 points compared to June, according to the latest figures from the National Statistical Institute (NSI).

The industrial business climate index growth of 2.3 point in July was mainly due to improved assessment of industrial managers about the enterprises' current state and moderate optimism regarding upcoming months.

The most serious problem hampering the sector continues to be the uncertain economic environment, followed by lower local and international demand and financial problems.

The majority of the managers expect that sales prices will maintain their current levels and export will increase in the next 3 months.

The construction business climate index is down by nearly 1 point compared with June; the reason is more pessimistic estimates of the current state of their companies and the decreased construction activity in July.

In July, work orders in the sector went up, while the number of clients who fail to pay on time is slightly down, according to the NSI survey.

Managers described the greatest difficulties in the construction industry as financial problems, the uncertain economic environment and low demand. They expect less activity in the next six months and more layoffs.

In July, those who forecast price stability continue to outnumber the optimists in the construction sector.

In the retail industry, the July business climate index is down by 0.5 points with managers saying the state of their companies is improving, but still predicting lower volume of sales and orders in the next sixth months. Here again, the uncertain economic environment and reduced demand are seen as the main difficulty, while the negative influence of financial problems is going up.

In the services sector the business climate index is up 4 points compared to June due to more optimistic managers' assessment of the current state of their businesses, but forecasts for the demand in the upcoming 3 months are more pessimistic.

The uncertain economic environment, followed by competition and lower demand are also the main factors seen as hindering the services sector. Managers do not expect a price increase in the next three months.

Source: novinite.com