Financial News: Finland Consumer Confidence Remains Weak, Industrial Moral

Finland Consumer Confidence Remains Weak, Industrial Morale Falls

(RTTNews) - Finland's consumer confidence remained weak in February despite rising slightly from January, as households' expectations towards their own and the Finnish economy in the next year remained worse, survey figures from Statistics Finland showed on Monday.

The industrial sentiment also weakened marginally at the middle of the first quarter, separate data from the Confederation of Finnish Industries EK revealed.

The consumer confidence index rose to -11.9 in February from -12.7 in December. The latest score was also well below the long-term average of -2.1, the agency said.

The data was collected from 1,008 persons between February 1 to 16.

Consumers' assessments of their own economy at present and expectations concerning one's own and especially Finland's economy over the next year still remained at a very weak level, the survey said.

Plans to spend money on durable products stayed largely unchanged and were relatively few.

Households considered the time very unfavorable for making large purchases. Predictions for inflation in a year's time were nearly unchanged at a lower level.

The industrial confidence index dropped to -6 in February from -3 in January, the Confederation of Finnish Industries said.

Production is expected to remain roughly unchanged in the coming months.

The retail confidence indicator improved slightly to -12 from -13 in January. Similarly, the construction confidence index recovered somewhat to -21 in February, and the service sector confidence indicator rose from 0 to 2.

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