Eurozone economic sentiment indicator rose to 103.5 in February, up from 102.6, beat expectation of 101.5. The improvement resulted from higher confidence among consumers and, to a lesser extent, industry managers. Looking at some details, industry confidence rose from -7.0 to -6.1. Services confidence edged up from 11.0 to 11.2. Consumer confidence rose fro -8.1 to -6.6. Retail trade confidence dropped slightly from -0.1 to -0.2. Construction confidence dropped from 5.8 to 5.3.
Amongst the largest euro-area economies, the ESI saw marked improvements in the Netherlands (+2.0), France (+1.9) and Spain (+1.2), while a more moderate one in Germany (+0.6). Sentiment in Italy remained flat (+0.0).
