Euro-Area Economic Confidence Drops More Than Forecast

Euro-Area Economic Confidence Drops More Than Forecast
26 April 2012, by Simone Meier (Bloomberg)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-26/euro-area-april-economic-confidence-drops-more-than-forecast-1-.html

Excerpt:

Economic confidence in the euro region declined more than economists had forecast in April, as the region’s slump showed signs of deepening.

An index of executive and consumer sentiment in the 17- nation euro area fell to 92.8 from a revised 94.5 in March, the European Commission in Brussels said today.

Economists had forecast a drop to 94.2 from a previously reported 94.4, the median of 29 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey showed.

Europe’s economy is faltering as spending cuts across the region undermine hiring and consumer confidence.

Deutsche Bank AG, Germany’s largest bank, today reported a 33% drop in first-quarter profit, with Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann calling investors’ “risk appetite markedly lower.”

“With more austerity in the pipeline and the debt crisis still unresolved, any significant pickup in economic confidence in the remainder of this year might fail to occur,” said Martin van Vliet, an economist at ING Group in Amsterdam.

“This could jeopardize a return to modest positive growth later this year.”

The euro-area economy probably continued to shrink in the first quarter after contracting 0.3% in the previous three months.

The region’s manufacturing industry contracted for a ninth straight month in April and unemployment rose to 10.8% in February.