January 16 (SeeNews) - N. Macedonia's business confidence index in manufacturing fell by 0.4 percentage points year-on-year in December 2022, to 14.0, the country's statistical office said on Monday.
Compared to November's value, the business confidence index in manufacturing was 0.3 lower in December, Makstat said in a press release, announcing the results of a monthly survey of local managers.
“The situation with the current volume of production orders in December 2022 was less favourable compared to the previous month, expectations for the production volume for the next three months are less favourable, while the stocks of finished goods increased,” the statistical office said.
The managers who participated in the survey expect the number of employees in the manufacturing sector to decrease in the coming period.
The shortage of skilled labour had the greatest weight among the factors for limiting the production volume in December, of 21.7%, followed by insufficient foreign demand with 16.3%, uncertainty of the economic environment with 16.1% and insufficient domestic demand with 11.9%, according to the survey.