Press Release: February 2012: Economic sentiment increases in both the EU and the euro area

In February 2012, the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) rose for the second month in a row in both the EU and the euro area.

The ESI rose by 1.1 points in the EU and by 1.0 point in the euro area, to 93.9 and 94.4, respectively. The improvement was broad-based across all sectors except for services, where a decrease in confidence partly offset the rebound observed in January. Among the largest Member States Poland (+1.7) reported the biggest increase in sentiment, followed by France (+1.6), the Netherlands (+1.2) and Italy (+1.0), while the ESI improved only marginally in the UK (+0.3) and remained broadly unchanged in Germany (+0.1) and Spain (-0.2). The ESI is above its long-term average only in Germany.