Slightly stronger sentiment in June

The Economic Tendency Indicator climbed from 89.3 in May to 90.3 in June, thanks mainly to stronger signals from the service sector but also to an improvement in the retail indicator.

The confidence indicator for the manufacturing industry edged down to 102.3. Sentiment varies considerably between different types of goods. Producers of capital goods are unusually upbeat at 110.0, while producers of intermediate goods are much more downbeat at 90.6.

The confidence indicator for the building and civil engineering industry fell 3.5 points to 96.8. The homebuilding and civil engineering indicators fell by the same amount.

The confidence indicator for the retail trade climbed 1.0 point to 87.2, but this remains by far the most pessimistic part of the business sector. Food retailers are still the strongest segment despite dropping 2.4 points to 96.6.

The confidence indicator for the service sector increased the most in June, rising 2.0 points to 92.4. Although sentiment is weaker than normal, firms have positive employment plans for the next three months. One segment with an unusual number of firms planning to recruit is IT consulting.

The consumer confidence indicator climbed 1.4 points to 71.7. Women are still slightly less negative than men: the indicator for women climbed 2.1 points in June to 72.0, while the indicator for men was almost unchanged at 68.6.