2017.06.2905:31:00UTC+00Eurozone Economic Confidence Strengthens In June

Eurozone economic confidence strengthened more than expected in June, survey data from the European Commission showed Thursday.

The economic sentiment index rose to 111.1 in June, the highest since August 2007, from 109.2 in May. The expected reading was 109.5.

The industrial confidence index climbed to 4.5 in June, while it was forecast to remain unchanged at 2.8. Rising industrial confidence was fueled by managers' more optimistic assessment of the current level of overall order books and healthier assessments of the stocks of finished products.

The consumer sentiment index came in at -1.3, in line with flash estimate. The reading improved from -3.3 in May.

The strong increase in consumer confidence reflected more positive assessments of the future general economic situation, future unemployment and consumers' savings expectations.

At the same time, the services confidence indicator rose to 13.4 from 12.8 a month ago. The slight increase in services confidence resulted from managers' brighter demand expectations and the improvement in their views on the past business situation.

Further, data showed that the confidence index for retailers more than doubled to 4.4 from 2.0 in the previous month.

Another report from EU showed that the business confidence index rose to 1.15 in June from 0.90 in May. Managers' assessments of the past production, overall and export order books and the stocks of finished products improved markedly.

However, managers' production expectations remained virtually unchanged in June.