CECE Secretary General discusses economic perspectives at LiuGong dealers’ meeting

CECE Secretary General recently presented the latest findings from CECE’s market intelligence research during an online meeting of LiuGong’s European dealers. This is part of the initial activities after LiuGong Dressta Machinery has joined CECE as affiliated member, with its manufacturing unit in Poland not yet represented by the industry association.

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In his presentation Riccardo Viaggi highlighted the recent improving trends in the CECE Business Climate Index after the disastrous decline in April and May. The confidence index has indeed bounced back in June with factories reopening and companies working on the old backlog of orders. However, the same survey shows that the overall yearly performance will be very negative: over 2/3 of respondents in the regular monthly CECE COVID-19 surveys expect a drop in revenues between 10 and 30% for 2020.

Continuing on his presentation Riccardo Viaggi highlighted the importance of public recovery programmes at national and European levels in boosting investments after the COVID-crisis. This is particularly important with regards to the content and the timing of the European Recovery Fund, which is currently being discussed at the EU level. Indeed, it is expected that the construction sector will be central to the national recovery plans to access the proposed funds of the Next Generation EU programmes. The current proposal by the European Commission stands at € 750 billion, but as Riccardo alerted participants, the national or even local level implementation for buildings and infrastructure will make the difference in the recovery in 2021.