Consumer confidence improves somewhat in May, but still low

Ljubljana, 21 May (STA) - Consumer confidence in Slovenia somewhat improved in May, with the relevant index going up by five percentage points compared to April. It was however still 25 percentage points below the long-term average, the Statistics Office reported on Thursday.

The slight improvement this month comes after the consumer confidence index plummeted 30 percentage points on the monthly level in April to the lowest point on record, or since March 1996.

It was the month most affected by the anti-coronavirus measures, which started to be gradually relaxed towards the end of April. This month, improvement in consumer confidence was recorded in three out of the four indicators.

The indicator measuring the expectations about the economic situation in the country was up by nine percentage points, followed by the indicator measuring consumer's expectations about their financial situation (up by eight points).

The indicator measuring consumer's expectations about savings was up by six points, while their expectations about the number of unemployed persons deteriorated by two points.

Year-on-year, the consumer confidence index was lower in May by 36 percentage points, and down by 35 points compared to last year's average.