EU economic sentiment improves in May

The EC’s economic sentiment indicator (ESI) has improved in both the EU (+0.6 points to 95.2) and the euro area (+1.0 points to 94.8).

That’s an encouraging pick-up, following two months of declines, but both gauges are still below their long-term average.

The EC reports that:

The rise in the ESI for the EU was primarily driven by a partial rebound of confidence in the retail trade sector and among consumers, with a moderate contribution also from the construction sector. Confidence in both the industry and services sectors remained broadly stable.

Among the largest EU economies, the ESI increased in Italy (+2.8) and in Germany (+1.5), but fell in France (-3.5), the Netherlands (-0.8), Poland (-0.6), and Spain (-0.4).