Eurozone economic confidence improves in July

Eurozone economic confidence strengthened in July, driven by improved confidence among consumers and managers in industry, services and retail trade, survey data from the European Commission showed Tuesday.

The economic confidence index improved to 92.5 from 91.3 in the previous month. The reading matched economists' expectations.

Sentiment in the industrial sector rose to -10.6 from -11.2 in June. This was resulted from improvements in managers' production expectations and their assessment of the current level of overall order books.

Services confidence saw the sharpest increase of all sectors covered in July, driven by improved assessments of the past business situation and past demand. The index came in at -7.8 compared to -9.6 a month ago.

Consumer confidence improved markedly in July and for the eighth successive month. The indicator climbed to -17.4 from -18.8 last month.

A separate survey showed that business confidence improved for a third consecutive month in July. The reading rose to -0.58 from -0.67 in June.

The assessment of past production strengthened sharply and also production expectations and the level of overall order books were appraised more positively. At the same time, the assessment of the level of export order books and the stocks of finished products remained broadly unchanged.