RTTN:Eurozone June Economic Sentiment Falls Less Than Forecast
(RTTNews) - Eurozone economic confidence declined less than economists expected in June, survey results from European Commission showed Thursday.
The economic confidence index fell to 89.9 in June from 90.5, but remains above the consensus forecast of 89.6. Falling confidence in industry, services and, to a lesser extent, among consumers was counterbalanced by improving confidence in retail trade and construction.
Due to a deterioration in managers' production expectations and their assessment of their companies' current level of overall order books, industrial confidence dropped to -12.7 from -11.4.
Meanwhile, confidence in retail trade rebounded to -14.9 from -18.1 a month ago. Confidence also recovered in construction, to -28.1 from -30.2 in the prior month.
Confidence among consumers declined slightly by 0.5 points to -19.8, based mainly on worsened expectations about the future general economic situation and increased unemployment fears in both regions.
In a separate report, the commission said business confidence worsened to -0.94 in June from -0.79 in May. The decline was mainly driven by a more negative assessment of production expectations, past production, overall order books and export order books.
