Eurozone economic confidence rises more than expected in September
Eurozone economic sentiment rose more than expected in September, driven by improvement in the bloc’s biggest economies.
The European Commission’s economic sentiment index edged up to 104.9 in September from 103.5 in August, beating expectations for an unchanged reading.
Economic sentiment improved the most in the largest eurozone economies including Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.
The rise in sentiment was boosted by an increase in industry confidence, which edged up to -1.7 in September from -4.1 in August.
“Overall, this is an upbeat headline, indicating that the hit from the Brexit shock has faded towards the end of the third quarter, at least temporarily as businesses and markets await the trigger of Article 50,” said Claus Vistesen, chief eurozone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
Separately, the Commission's business climate indicator, which measures business confidence, increased to 0.45 in September from 0.03 in August. It marked the highest level since October 2015 and exceeded forecasts of 0.05.