KOF economic barometer: economic prospects are blurring

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As ETH economic research institute KOF announced on Tuesday, the economic barometer for the current month has dropped to 90.2 points, a 5.9 percentage point decrease from April (revised from 96.4 to 96.1) . Experts interviewed by the AWP news agency had previously shown themselves to be significantly more optimistic, with forecast values ​​between 94.0 and 97.5 points.

The barometer is therefore further below its medium-term average and approaching its previous low. This was marked 89.3 points in November 2022.

KOF writes that the relatively strong downward move was driven primarily by indicators for the manufacturing sector and those recording financial and insurance services. Indicators covering other services sector and foreign demand also gave negative signals. Private consumption, on the other hand, followed a somewhat positive course.

In the manufacturing sector, the picture was mostly negative. The strongest negative factors are indicators for assessing the business situation and production barriers. KOF writes that the indicators of the order and competitive situation are also negative. The situation assessment regarding production capacities, on the other hand, was somewhat positive.

The KOF economic barometer is a leading indicator for the development of the Swiss economy, which consists of a large number of individual indicators. There are 608 of them since the last revision. These are combined into an overall indicator using statistically determined weights.

Along with the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), another important leading economic indicator will be released on Thursday, June 1st.

(SDA)

Source :Blick