The statistics office describe the 5% month on month decline in sales as "characteristic of the period prior to Christmas marketing in December". This may well be, but the slope of the downward line in the above chart is remarkably constant. Still, we will soon know when we get the December data.
Banks such as Citigroup and Goldman Sachs have been increasingly saying the Baltic countries, and especially Latvia, face increased risk of a ``hard landing'' because of accelerating inflation and widening current-account deficits, and this has lead to increased speculation about a possible devaluation of the Latvian lats and the Estonian kroon. Finance Minister Ivari Padar forecast last month that inflation, which accelerated to the fastest pace in nine years last month, will be at least 10 percent in the first half of 2008 because of higher taxes on alcohol, tobacco and fuel.
Consumer confidence fell in December to its lowest level in more than 2 1/2 years on worsening expectations for personal and state finances, according to the Estonian Economic Research Institute.
The consumer confidence index fell to minus 10 this month from minus 7 in November, the Tallinn-based Institute of Economic Research said at the end of December. In December 2006, the index was at 7 points.
Consumer spending has weakened in the past months due to rising interest rates and stricter lending terms set by banks, slowing the Baltic country's economic expansion in the third quarter to a four-year low of 6.4 percent. Rising inflation, at a nine-year high of 9.1 percent in November, has also worsened consumer's expectations.
The latest release of the EU Commission Economic Sentiment Indicator for Estonia (published yesterday) gives us a very similar picture.
Copmparing the three charts, and observing how they mark such a very similar line, I would say the position now is very clear indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment