Cyprus business confidence shows mild recovery

Business confidence in February improved by 2.2 points to 68.3 on a monthly basis according to the Business and Consumer Survey conducted by the Economic Research Centre of the University of Cyprus in cooperation with the European Committee.
The increase in the Business Climate Index was due to the improvement in the construction sector (from -52 to -39) because of an increase in the volume of ongoing projects, as well as expectations for higher employment levels in the sector. Consumer, manufacturing and trade sectors improved marginally from -39 in January to -38, from -13 to -12 and from -26 to -24, respectively. The services sector remained unchanged.
Despite some improvement in the business sentiment in construction, the level of economic activity may remain in the red in the first quarter of 2010 as all other sectors (except construction) did not mark any material improvement so far, according to an analysis by Marfin CLR Research.
However, some improvement in the growth level of economic activity should not be excluded vis-à-vis 4Q09 (but still a negative reading is anticipated).