ZEW-Erste Group Bank Economic Sentiment Indicator for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)- Rising Optimism

Economic expectations for Central and Eastern Europe including Turkey (CEE) have improved considerably in October. The ZEW-Erste Group Bank Economic Sentiment Indicator has increased by 20.1 points to a level of 5.5 points. Furthermore, rising optimism can be seen in all of the surveyed countries. The economic outlook is brightening up for each country included in the survey in October.

Experts are most optimistic for Croatia where economic expectations have augmented by 28.2 points.

The economic sentiment indicator for the CEE region and further financial market data have been surveyed monthly by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, with the support of Erste Group Bank, Vienna, since 2007.

The assessment of the current economic situation for the CEE region has remained almost unchanged in October. The respective indicator has declined slightly by 2.6 points to a level of 0.1 points.

Economic expectations for the Eurozone display a double digit increase in October. The respective indicator has risen by 17.2 points to a level of 2.3 points. Experts’ assessment of the current economic situation in the Eurozone has improved slightly in this month’s survey. The respective indicator has increased by 3.9 points to a value of minus 62.8 points.

Information concerning further indicators of the CEE region, the Eurozone, individually analysed CEE countries or Austria can be found in the table at the end of the press release. The answers of all survey participants are taken into account for the calculation of the indicators for the CEE region, the Eurozone and Turkey. The answers of the Turkish survey participants are not taken into account for the calculation of the indicators for the individual CEE countries and Austria as their high participation share in the survey could cause significant biases in the survey results.

For further information please contact

Zwetelina Iliewa, Phone +49 621/1235-346, E-mail iliewa@zew.de

Survey Procedure and Methodology

The Financial Market Survey CEE is a survey carried out among financial market experts by the Centre for European Economic Research in Mannheim (ZEW) and the Erste Group Bank AG, Vienna. The target of this survey is to develop indicators describing the economic conditions in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as well as in Austria.

The CEE region observed in the survey consists of Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia , Slovenia and since October 2010 Turkey.

The financial experts are questioned on their evaluations of the current business situation, the medium-term prospects of the respective economies and their expectations as to the development of the inflation rate, the short- and long-term interest rates, the exchange rates and stock prices on a six month time horizon. The analysts’ assessments reflect the qualitative direction of the estimated changes. The monthly ‘Financial Market Report CEE’ contains the results for every Central and Eastern European country in detail.