Eurozone's Oct. economic confidence hits three-year low
BRUSSELS. October 30. KAZINFORM Eurozone's economic confidence in October as reflected by the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) hit the lowest level since September 2009 at 84.5 points, the European Commission said Tuesday.
In the eurozone, marked decreases of confidence in the sectors of industry and construction outweighed the improvement in the retail trade sector, while confidence in services and among consumers remained broadly stable, the Commission said, Xinhua reports.
This is the eighth month in a row that the eurozone has seen economic confidence declining. Experts cited the figure as a sign of further economic contraction in the single-currency area.
"October's deterioration in the eurozone business and consumer surveys suggests that the economy started the fourth quarter on a very weak note," Jennifer McKeown, senior european economist at the London-based research group Capital Economics told Xinhua.
The ESI now appears consistent with annual contractions in eurozone gross domestic product (GDP) of around 2.5 percent, McKeown said. GDP contracted by 0.2 percent in the second quarter this year, according to Eurostat.
"That implies very steep quarterly falls in GDP in the next few quarters and is consistent with our well below consensus forecast of a 2.5 percent drop in GDP in 2013," McKeown added.
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