By Marco Babic
ZURICH (MaceNews) – The recovery in economic sentiment for the euro-area economies which had been improving steadily since May stalled in October, according to the latest report Thursday from the European Commission.
The Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) for countries sharing the euro was 90.9 in October, matching the level recorded in September, with the same dynamic seen for the broader European Union, where the index stagnated at 90.
The decline, however, was mixed with Germany and Italy reporting respective increases of 1.5 and 1.2 points, while sentiment in France fell 4.5 points and that in the Netherlands by 2.2 points, according to the report.
Results among sectors were mixed, as “the ESI’s stagnation reflected weaker confidence in services and, more so, among consumers, which was counterbalanced by a continued recovery of industry, retail trade and construction confidence,” the Commission said.
CONSUMER SENTIMENT
After increases in August and September, sentiment among consumers in the Euro-area fell to -15.5 in October from -13.9 the previous month. Among the region’s larger economies, Germany, France, Italy, The Netherlands and Spain all reported declines in consumer sentiment.
After also improving for five consecutive months, employment expectations fell in October, down 1.8 points to 89.8 in the Euro-area. This was “due to a significant decline of employment plans in services, which were only partly compensated by comparatively mild improvements of expectations in industry, retail trade and construction,” according to the report.
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Contact this reporter: marco@macenews.com.
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