Euro Area: Economic sentiment declines in January
Sentiment in the Eurozone dropped to 112.7 in January from 113.8 in December. The index nonetheless remained comfortably above its long-run average of 100. Sentiment in the services, industry and construction sectors worsened amid the spread of the Omicron variant. Moreover, employment expectations deteriorated. On the flipside, sentiment in the retail trade sector improved. Meanwhile, selling price expectations increased across all sectors. Moreover, consumers grew less confident in January.
In terms of specific countries, sentiment decreased the most in the Italy, and it also weakened in France and the Netherlands, while it picked up Germany and Spain.