European investor confidence falls
19 August 2008

Written by Sophie Baker

European investor confidence saw a three-point decline from 80.3 to 77.3 between July 2008 and August 2008, according to research by State Street Global Markets.

Globally, confidence fell from 84.0 in July 2008 to 77.2 in August 2008, a decrease of 6.8 points, with the biggest drive from North American investors who reported a decline from 85.8 to 77.7 points.

The only positive area of confidence was from Asian investors, who saw an improvement in risk appetite for the second month with a benchmark level of 88.9 compared to 85.3 in July.

State Street director, Paul O’Connell, commented: “There appears to have been a cycle of risk appetite declines rippling across the major regions over the last two months. North American investors took a more pessimistic view in June and European investors followed suit. The buoyancy of Asian confidence over the last two months was not sufficient to outweigh this increased pessimism.”