Consumer demand pushes managers' confidence to historic highs

Managers’ confidence in the current economic climate is at a historic high, as National Statistics Institute (INS) polls show. Managers’ confidence is at its highest in the retail and industry sectors, followed by services and construction. In the four years the INS has conducted monthly polls among managers, retail companies have reported 43 consecutive confidence increases in the economic situation of the respective segment, just like industry managers. Retail managers’ trust is justified by the considerable revenue growth they’ve witnessed in recent years. In just 3 years (2003-2005), turnover in the retail segment has surged by almost 40% in real terms, with growth posted in the first six months of this year amounting to 25%. The retailers’ growing business actually reflects rising consumer demand in the economy, due to salary increases of recent years and also to the fact that credit has become more widely available.