Business confidence among firms in the manufacturing sector improved in May, with sentiment clocking in at 4—the best result since August 2018—from April’s 1. Consequently, the index moved further above the 0-point threshold, separating optimism from pessimism among businesses for the third month running.
Moreover, sentiment in the services sector improved markedly in May, turning notably more optimistic. However, sentiment in the retail and construction sectors dropped back to pessimistic territory in the same month.
FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast panelists expect gross fixed investment to increase 2.9% in 2021, which is up 0.4 percentage points from last month’s forecast, and 3.6% in 2022.
Source: Focus Economics