NICOSIA, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Despite whopping economic growth, economic sentiment in Cyprus deteriorated in August, a European Union (EU)-funded survey said on Wednesday.
The Economic Research Center of the University of Cyprus said in its monthly review that its economic sentiment indicator dropped by seven points compared with July 2017.
The decline resulted mainly from the weakening of business confidence in services, and the deterioration in economic confidence in construction and industry, it added.
Economic growth went up to 3.5 percent in the first quarter relative to the same quarter of 2016 and is projected to continue at that level, compared to an initial projection of 2.9 percent, but firms had a less optimistic assessment of recent business conditions, according to the survey.
It said the deterioration in services confidence was primarily driven by the less positive responses in financial services, and also downward revisions of demand expectations in hotels and warehousing.
The survey added that the construction confidence indicator decreased slightly due to downward revisions of firms' future employment plans. The consumer confidence indicator dipped marginally as consumers were less optimistic about their future financial situation and future savings.
The EU co-funds the monthly survey by the Economic Research Center since Cyprus was bailed out by the Eurogroup and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under a three-year 10-billion-euro (12 billion U.S. dollar) economic assistance program. (1 euro = 1.19 U.S. dollars)
