Producer confidence is declining slightly again

In April, producer confidence in the industry reached 8.2, Statistics Netherlands reports. That is a small decrease compared to 9.5 in March. The index, which indicates how much confidence entrepreneurs have in the economy, now shows a decline in producer confidence for the second time. Yet confidence still remains well above the average of the past twenty years. This has a value of 0.8. Producer confidence peaked in February this year. Then the index recorded one value of 10.9. The entrepreneurs interviewed are particularly less positive about the expected activity and stocks of finished products. Confidence in the order book actually increased. Daily production also increased by 4.2 percent compared to February 2017. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, producers in the base metal and metal products, electrical engineering and machinery, food and petroleum industries were less positive. than a month earlier.