GKI: In December, GKI’S economic sentiment index almost completely offset its November fall

GKI’s economic sentiment index rose sharply in December. It almost reached its October level again, which was much more favourable than the April low, but had been at a fairly low level since the beginning of summer. According to the survey conducted by GKI Economic Research Co. with the support of the EU, the improvement was due to more upbeat business expecta-tions, and the pessimism of all sectors decreased significantly. The consumer confidence index, on the other hand, fell sharply in December after a minimal rise in November. The fact that households are always asked at the beginning of the month and companies in the middle of the month might play a role in the different trends of consumer and business expectations in the last two months. Thus, households did not yet perceive the restrictions caused by the pan-demic in early November, whereas a significant number of companies responded in December with the knowledge of the agreement with the EU.