Economic sentiment in the European Union and the euro area marginally rose in May, driven by a partial recovery in consumer and services confidence, according to European Commission data published Thursday.
In the euro area, economic sentiment edged up to 93.5 points from the revised 93.2 points in April, surpassing the consensus estimate of 92.8 points. Meanwhile, in the EU, economic sentiment rose to 93.7 points from 93.4 points.
With the indicator still below the long-term average of 100 points, the European Commission noted that the improvement in overall economic sentiment was tempered by declines in industry, retail trade and construction segments.
Among the major EU economies, sentiment improved in Germany, France and Poland, while sentiment was "broadly stable" in Italy and Spain and dipped in the Netherlands.
The consumer confidence index confirmed a modest recovery for the month at -19 points for the euro area and -18.2 points in the EU, compared with the previous month's -20.6 points and the revised -19.9 points, respectively.
After steep losses in April, consumers were less pessimistic about their future financial outlook, intentions to purchase big-ticket items over the next 12 months and their respective country's economic trajectory, while their views of past financial circumstances were still largely unchanged.
Meanwhile, the service sector's confidence indicator ticked up 0.8 points in the EU, due to service managers' improved assessments of the past business situation and future demand expectations.
The employment expectations indicator for May also increased by 2.1 points to 95.4 points in the EU and by 2.8 points in the euro area to 94.7 points. The boost was attributed to retail trade and services sectors looking to expand their teams, marginally offset by a slowdown in construction.
Conversely, consumers grew more pessimistic about their job prospects for the month, as unemployment expectations, which are not factored into the main indicator, deteriorated further.
