Interviewed households said that they were more pessimistic concerning their future financial situation and the Cypriot economy and added that they were planning to save less over the next 12 months, the Economic Research Centre of the University of Cyprus said in an emailed statement recently.

Business confidence in services dropped mainly on less positive evaluations of interviewed companies for their financial situation and demand in the past three months, the ERC said. They also said that they are less optimistic about demand over the next three-month period.

The decline in business confidence in construction is on more negative evaluation of the current order book, the ERC said. In addition, prospects of construction companies hiring more workers were limited.

Finally, an improved evaluation of the financial situation by the retail trade companies and manufacturers combined with deteriorating expectations, allowed business confidence to remain unchanged in these two areas of economic activity, the ERC said.

In April 2013, the economic sentiment indicator dropped to its lowest ever value of 69 points and reached peaked at 119.7, in June 2001 the month after its introduction.

Source: Cyprus Mail