Euro area economic confidence for the ninth consecutive month pick-up

The European Commission 7, published reports indicate that reflected economic confidence in the euro area economy sensitive index for the month of December 2009 for the first nine months, the momentum for economic recovery has become increasingly obvious.

The report shows that the current month reflecting the eurozone producers and consumers of 16 countries on economic optimism levels of economic sensitivity index compared with the previous month increased 2.5 point, rose to 91.3 points. EU 27 economies sensitive index up 4.1 points to 92.0 points.

The European Commission said that this was mainly due to the euro area and EU industrial sector confidence to continue to enhance confidence in the services sector. Consumer confidence increases slightly, reflecting the concerns of consumers for unemployment is gradually mitigated. In addition, the euro area and EU retail confidence not changed significantly, the downturn in the construction industry confidence.

In the EU Member States, the United Kingdom main economic confidence last month last year increased the fastest, followed by France, Germany was relatively small.

Although the euro area and EU economic confidence in the continuous improvement of 9 months, the European Commission noted that the current level is still below the long-term average.

The European Commission today published a separate report shows that the eurozone last December business climate index for the first nine months rose, rose to negative 1.22, still at a relatively low level.