In another blow to the recovery of the European economy, consumer confidence across the region fell in April. The reading was the lowest since December and is another marker that whatever brief recovery there might have been late last year is over.
Europe’s number can be added to evidence in the United States that its economic activity has slowed. That leaves the world’s two largest economies tipping more negative. (The European Union is often measured as on nation for GDP measurement purposes). Some data out of China show that its normally white hot economy has flagged also.
Bloomberg said of economic confidence in Europe:
Economic confidence in the euro area decreased more than economists forecast in April as the 17- nation currency bloc struggled to emerge from a recession and the bailout of Cyprus renewed debt-crisis concerns.
An index of executive and consumer sentiment dropped to 88.6 from a revised 90.1 in March, the European Commission in Brussels said today. That’s the lowest since December. Economists had forecast a decline to 89.3, according to the median of 26 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey.
Business confidence and investor sentiment in Germany, Europe’s largest economy, dropped more than expected in April.
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