Euro Area: Economic sentiment improves further in January
Sentiment in the Eurozone rose to 98.0 in January from 95.7 in December. However, the index remained entrenched below its long-run average of 100, signaling persistent pessimism.
Sentiment in the industry, services and retail sales sectors improved. Additionally, consumer sentiment recovered further ground, while selling price expectations eased in all sectors except for services. Moreover, employment expectations gained ground.
In terms of specific countries, sentiment improved in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.
Commenting on the release, Bert Colijn, senior economist at ING, stated:
“Service sector businesses were particularly upbeat, resulting in stubbornly high selling price expectations. The latter will be taken as hawkish input for the ECB meeting”.