BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - Eurozone economic sentiment softened unexpectedly in August as only industry and retail trade showed improvements, survey results from the European Commission showed Thursday.
The economic sentiment indicator slid to 95.2 in August from a revised 95.7 in the previous month. The score was forecast rise to 96.0.
The fall in economic confidence reflected downticks in industry, services, construction and consumer confidence. Only retail trade morale showed a small improvement in August.
The industrial confidence index rose to -10.3 from -10.5 in July but the reading was lower than the forecast of -10.0.
At the same time, the measure for services confidence showed a moderate fall to 3.6 from 4.1 in July. Managers reported a marked deterioration in their assessments of past demand.
Similarly, the consumer confidence index edged down to -15.5, in line with the flash estimate, from -14.7 a month ago. Consumers became more pessimistic about their financial outlook, and less so about the future general economic situation.
Retail trade confidence saw a marginal improvement to -6.5, due to small upticks in retailers' assessment of the past and expected business situation, and a broadly unchanged assessment of the volume of stocks, the survey showed.
Construction confidence eased to -3.5 from -3.1 as builders' assessments of their order books fell back but were almost fully offset by their improved employment expectations.
The employment expectations indicator improved to 97.8 from 97.5 in July, as employment plans brightened in industry, retail trade and construction. The survey data was collected between August 1 and 21.
ING economist Bert Colijn said economic sentiment remains in line with muted growth for the eurozone, which is likely to be somewhat stronger than in the second quarter.
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