The ZEW-Erste Group Bank Economic Sentiment Indicator for Central and Eastern Europe including Turkey (CEE) has declined significantly by 21.4 points in August 2011. The indicator which displays the expectations of the surveyed financial market experts regarding the economic development in the CEE region on a six-month time horizon now stands at minus 26.4 points. The indicator reflecting the assessment for the economic development in the Eurozone has dropped by 16.7 points to a level of minus 41.8 points. Whereas for the CEE region the majority of experts (50 per cent) retain neutral economic expectations, for the Eurozone 55 per cent are rather pessimistic.

The major decrease of experts' optimism for the CEE region is likely to be a result of the increasing concerns regarding the Eurozone's economic prospects and reflects the increasing uncertainty on the financial markets. The economic sentiment indicator for the CEE region and further financial market data have been surveyed monthly by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, with the support of Erste Group Bank, Vienna, since 2007.

Inflation expectations for the CEE region have dropped by 36.9 points reaching minus 6.2 points - the lowest level since September 2009.

The indicator which reflects the assessments of the current economic conditions in the CEE region has decreased by 10.1 points to 2.8 points in August. The evaluation of the current economic situation in the Eurozone has worsened by 14.6 points to the minus 39.2 mark.

Information concerning further indicators of the CEE region, the Eurozone, individually analysed CEE countries or Austria can be found here. The answers of all survey participants are taken into account for the calculation of the indicators for the CEE region, the Eurozone and Turkey. The answers of the Turkish survey participants are not taken into account for the calculation of the indicators for the individual CEE countries.