Eurozone Economic Confidence At 3-Month High
January 08 2020 - 1:19AM
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Eurozone economic confidence rose to a three-month high despite
the weakness in industrial and consumer sentiment, survey results
from the European Commission showed Wednesday.
The economic confidence index rose to 101.5 in December, as
expected, from 101.2 in November.
Confidence among service providers, retailers and contractors
strengthened at the end of the year, while industrial and consumer
sentiment deteriorated from the previous month.
Today's data is consistent with the message from other surveys
that while the Eurozone is not falling into recession, there is no
sign that growth is picking up either, Jessica Hinds, an economist
at Capital Economics, said.
The survey showed that the strong increase of 2.2 points in
services confidence was driven by managers' more optimistic views
on past business situation, past and expected demand.
Meanwhile, the industrial confidence indicator dropped 0.2
points to -9.3 in December, as a result of managers' more
optimistic production expectations being offset by the
deterioration of their appraisals of the stocks of finished
products and the current level of overall order books.
Likewise, the consumer confidence dropped by 0.9 points to -8.1,
reflecting a decline in expectations concerning households'
financial conditions and the general economic situation. The score
matched its flash estimate.
Meanwhile, the retail trade confidence improved to 0.8 from
-0.2, mainly due to retailers' more positive views on the present
and expected business situation.
At the same time, the construction confidence index gained 2.2
points to 5.0 in December. This was fueled by managers' more
optimistic employment expectations and assessment of the level of
order books.
On the price front, the survey showed that selling price
expectations increased markedly in industry, services and retail
trade, while remaining broadly flat in construction. Also consumer
price expectations increased in December.
Another survey showed that the business climate indicator came
in at -0.25, broadly unchanged from -0.21 in November. With the
exception of production expectations, all the components of the
indicator worsened in December.
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