Brussels, 30/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - Confidence in the economy continued to grow last October in both the eurozone and EU as a whole, for the sixth consecutive month. According to figures published by the European Commission on Wednesday 30 October, the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) for October increased by 0.9 points in the euro area (to 97.8) and by 1.1 points in the EU (to 101.8).
This represents an improvement of 0.9 points in the eurozone compared to September and of 1.1 points for the EU. This improvement was driven by increased confidence in industry (+1.8 points) and, to a lesser extent, among consumers (+0.4 points). By contrast, confidence weakened in the retail trade (-0.9 points), construction (-0.8 points) and services (-0.5 points). Economic sentiment improved in three out of the five largest euro area economies, i.e. the Netherlands (+3.3), France (+2.6) and Germany (+0.8), while it deteriorated in Spain (-2.2) and Italy (-2.0). (EL/transl.fl)