Eurozone Economic Confidence Falls In September

Eurozone economic confidence weakened in September largely driven by the deterioration in sentiment among consumers, survey results from the European Commission showed on Thursday.

The economic confidence index fell to 93.3 in September from 93.6 in the previous month. But the reading was above economists’ forecast of 92.5.

The overall fall was driven by the marked fall in consumer sentiment and moderate weakness in confidence among retailers and builders.

The industrial sentiment index improved to -9.0 in September from -9.9 a month ago. While managers’ opinion on the current level of overall order books continued to worsen, their production expectations improved for the second consecutive month.

With more downbeat views on past demand, the services confidence indicator dropped moderately to 4.0 in September from 4.3 in the previous month.

Consumer confidence declined markedly for the second straight month as survey respondents became more pessimistic about their past and future financial situation and the expected general economic situation. At -17.8, the consumer sentiment index matched the flash estimate and dropped from -16.0 in August.

Retail trade confidence edged down to -5.7 from -5.1 in the prior month on account of deteriorating assessments of the past business situation. By contrast, retailers continued to be more optimistic about the expected business situation.

Due to the deterioration in both assessments of the level of order books and employment expectations, the construction sentiment indicator slid to -6.2 in September from -5.4 a month ago.

The employment expectations indicator, which had been on a downward trend since February, picked up on account of more optimistic employment plans among services managers. The corresponding index improved to 102.7 from 102.2 in the previous month.

Selling price expectations came down further in services and retail trade but remained elevated, the survey showed.

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