Mozambique’s Economic Climate Indicator (ICE), which measures business confidence, started the year 2021 in decline, the National Statistics Institute (INE) announced.
In the monthly balance, the ICE dropped from a value of 90.5 points in December 2020 to 89.4 in January, down from 98.6, the average balance of the indicator recorded monthly since 2004.
“In sectoral terms, the unfavorable assessment of the economic climate in January was due to the poor performance in the economic activities of industrial production, transport, accommodation, catering and similar,” INE explained.
The unfavorable evaluation “supplanted the positive assessments recorded in the areas of other non-financial services and construction, in an environment in which there was maintenance in the trade sector.
Disaggregating the ECI by its components, the demand outlook “registered a slight drop in January, which was an interruption of a six-month upward trend.
The employment outlook “declined slightly again for the second month in a row” and the assessment on future prices “declined slightly, after a long upward profile.
The ECI is part of the Confidence and Economic Climate Indicators bulletin, a monthly publication on Mozambique’s economic situation, compiled based on a survey also conducted every month by INE to companies in the non-financial sector.
“The study expresses the opinion of economic agents about the evolution and outlook of their activity, particularly on employment, demand, orders, prices, production, sales and limitations of activity,” explains the Mozambican statistical authority.
