Prague - Recently, many important economic indicators started to imply that the global economic recovery may be decelerating.
One of the most closely-watched indicators is economic confidence. In Germany, whose economic recovery has been the strongest in Europe, economic confidence fell in May 2011.
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The same trend can be traced in all the euro-zone and EU, where the economic confidence dropped in April.
In the Czech Republic, the consumer confidence dropped slightly in May, due to consumers' fears of rising prices and entrepreneurs' doubts about the economic growth.
According to the regular survey conducted by the Czech Statistical Office, the economic confidence index dropped by 0.4 point in May
Even though the confidence of entrepreneurs in the Czech economy increased in May by 0.1 percent point compared to the previous month, the confidence of consumers decreased by 2.5 point.
Annually, the economic confidence index is 0.7 point higher than it was in May 2010.
Entrepreneurs in industry and trade were slightly more pessimistic in May than in April, decreasing their outlook for the following three months. However, this was balanced by better expectations in some parts of the service sector and an unchanged indicator in construction.
Czech consumers expect that their own financial situation as well as the general state of the economy will deteriorate in the following 12 months. Annually their confidence grew by 9.5 point, but in comparison with April it dropped in may by 2.5 point.
According to the Czech Statistical Office, more people expect the unemployment rate to increase, and another important factor is the fear of price increases.
