TIRANA (Albania), April 8 (SeeNews) – Albania’s economic confidence indicator increased by 4.6 percentage points (pp) to 106.5 in the first quarter of 2019, after going down by 1.2 pp in the previous quarter, the central bank said on Monday.
The improvement is attributable mainly to the increase of confidence in the construction sector and in consumer confidence, the Bank of Albania said in a quarterly business and consumer confidence survey.
Confidence improved also in the trade and services sectors, while confidence in industry recorded a decline.
The industry confidence indicator edged down 0.7 pp in the first quarter. The indicator stands around 5.4 pp above its historical average.
The construction confidence indicator increased by 8.0 pp in the review period, shifting above its historical average, while the services confidence indicator edged up 0.3 pp.
The trade confidence indicator also increased, by 4.0 pp, in the first quarter, but the indicator remained below its historical average.
The consumer confidence indicator also increased in the first quarter, by 3.2 pp.
The confidence surveys of businesses and consumers are conducted by the Bank of Albania every three months since 2002. Starting from May 2016, Bank of Albania started conducting the surveys under the European Commission's programme for the Harmonization of the Consumer and Business Confidence Surveys for member and candidate countries of the European Union.