Data from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs indicates that economic sentiment in both regions remains significantly below the long-term average of 100 points.
The decline in economic sentiment is primarily attributed to reduced confidence in the industrial sector, which fell by 1.1 points, followed by retail trade, which decreased by 0.5 points.
Confidence in the services sector rose slightly by 0.2 points, while consumer confidence declined by 0.3 points. Meanwhile, confidence in construction increased by 0.7 points.
Among the largest economies in the EU, the indicator saw the most significant drop in France, decreasing by 3.4 points, followed by Spain with a decrease of 1.4 points, and Germany with a 0.8-point reduction.
Conversely, the indicator rose in Poland by 1 point and remained generally stable in Italy and the Netherlands, each with a 0.2-point increase.
The employment expectations indicator remained virtually unchanged at 97.5 points in the EU and saw a slight rise of 0.1 points in the euro area, reaching 97.1 points.
