Eurozone economic confidence hits highest level since 2000
Economic confidence across the eurozone has hit its strongest level in more than 17 years, according to official figures that suggest both consumers and businesses are benefiting from the region’s healthy recent performance.
The European Commission’s headline economic sentiment indicator advanced from the previous month’s 114.8 to 116.0 in December, its strongest level since October 2000. The jump was larger than economists had forecast, and reflected improvements among businesses in every sector, FT reported.
Confidence in the industrial sector was already at its highest level on record, but leaped even further than the most optimistic economists surveyed by Reuters had expected, from 114.8 to 116.0.
The official confidence measure echoes the optimism displayed in recent privatesector surveys — HIS Markit’s most recent purchasing managers’ index for the manufacturing sector also hit its highest level on record last month.
Service businesses were also significantly more cheery than forecast, with the sub-measure for that sector hitting its highest level since the summer of 2007, just before the start of the financial crisis.
Consumer confidence, meanwhile, was at its highest level since January 2001, confirming an earlier flash estimate.
The currency area started last year with many observers worrying that political uncertainty would weigh on economic performance, but it has since managed to outperform all but the most optimistic of predictions.
The European Central Bank now expects the economy to have expanded by 2.4 percent over 2017, compared with estimates for 1.7 percent growth at the start of the year, and the central bank ‘substantially’ upgraded its growth forecasts for the next two years at its latest policy meeting.