Ecostat’s combined consumer and business confidence index rose two percentage points to 74.7pc in December compared to November, but was still under the 77-78pc level in September and October, Ecostat told MTI on Thursday.
Ecostat’s TOP 100 measure of confidence of Hungary’s biggest hundred companies rose 3.6 percentage points to 68.6pc. But the SME index fell 2.2 percentage points to 60.8pc. The gauge of consumer confidence climbed 5 percentage points to 94.8pc.
Almost one-fourth of the companies in the TOP-100 said they expected output to grow in the first quarter of 2010, while a little more than half expected it to remain unchanged. About half of the companies planned to start investments in the coming year. One-fourth said their liquidity positions had worsened, while 16pc said they had improved. Asked about orders, 43pc of managers said order stock was about the same as usual and 46pc said it was lower than usual.
About 44pc of SMEs said their output would remain unchanged in the coming months and 16pc said it would grow. The percentage who said output would fall rose by 6 percentage points from the previous month to 40pc. About 56pc said headcount would not change and 13pc said they looked to make new hires. About one-third plan to start investments in the next twelve months.