Overall sales sentiment sustained strong results in April following a leap in confidence in March.
Overall sales sentiment only declined by 2.6 points to 146.6 in April. Sales sentiment softens rapidly looking toward May with the overall sentiment score collapsing by 16.1 points to 130.5.
However, even with this strong decline in the forecast, the overall view for sales sentiment is still extremely robust in the May outlook and stronger than November’s sentiment six months ago of 120.1.
“The most significant decline in the April Industry Pulse survey is found in the end-market assessment,” explained ECIA Chief Analyst Dale Ford. “On the bright side, this strong decline in the index score for end-markets is primarily driven by fewer survey participants reporting expectations for better market conditions.
“Only a small percentage of survey responses assessed the sales environment as worse in April or the May outlook. Even with the softer results for April and May, 2026 continues to show great sales sentiment health through the first five months of the year.
“Hopefully, this momentum will carry into the second half of 2026 and deliver a second year in a row of solid revenue growth in the authorised channel for electronic components.”
