Economic sentiment has declined both in the EU and in the euro area, underlining European pessimism over the future of the economy, figures in the European Commission’s latest business and consumer survey have revealed.
In August, the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) dropped five points to 97.3 from 102.3 in July for the EU and by 4.7 points to 98.3 from 103.0 in the euro area.
In addition, Germany and the UK experienced the strongest decreases in economic sentiment overall with falls of 5.7 points and 5.6 points respectively. German ESI decreased from 112.7 points in July to 107.0 in August and the UK dropped from 98.5 to 92.9.
Consumer confidence dropped by 4.4 points in the EU from -12.4 points to -16.8 and by 5.3 points from -11.2 points to -16.5 points in the euro area. Both regions experienced consumer pessimism about the future economic situation and high unemployment fears.
Also, financial service confidence in the EU fell by 8.1 points in the EU and by 9.6 points in the euro area. Industry confidence saw a fall of 3.8 points in the euro area compared to 2.6 points in the EU. Finally, the Business Climate Indicator (BCI) fell from 0.44 points to 0.07 points.
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