Press Release: April 2005: Economic sentiment continues to decline in both the EU and the euro area

The economic sentiment indicator (ESI) for the EU weakened by 1.7 points in April 2005, following its decline by 2.4 points in March. In the euro area, the indicator eased by 1 point in April, after a decrease of 1.3 points in March. Since peaking in October 2004, the indicator had fallen by 6.6 points in the EU and by 5 points in the euro area, indicating a considerable slowing of output growth in the first half of 2005.