Read
- Taxes on some wealthy French top 100 pct of income: paper
- North Korea fires short-range missiles for two days in a row
|
- Shooting death of gay man rocks New York's cradle of gay rights
- Israel warns against Russian arms supply to Syria
- Female hostage died from police bullet in New York standoff: official
Reuters Photojournalism
Our day's top images, in-depth photo essays and offbeat slices of life. See the best of Reuters photography. See more | Photo caption
Ethiopia's salt trails
For centuries merchants have traveled to Ethiopia to collect salt from the surface of the vast desert basin. Slideshow
Sponsored Links
Euro zone consumer confidence improves in February
A picture illustration taken with the multiple exposure function of the camera shows a one Euro coin and a map of Europe, January 9, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Kai Pfaffenbach
BRUSSELS |
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone consumer confidence rose in February, figures released on Wednesday showed.
The European Commission said a flash estimate that euro zone consumer morale improved slightly to -23.6, up from -23.9 in January.
But the improvement was not as great as that forecast by a Reuters poll of 25 economists, who had predicted a rise in February to -23.1.
Consumer spending accounts for more than half of euro zone economic output, but with the effects of the debt crisis cutting disposable income, households have been in no position to contribute much to economic recovery.
In the wider 27-member European Union, consumer sentiment also improved marginally, rising to -21.6 from -21.9 a month before.
For European Commission data click on:
(Reporting By Ethan Bilby, Editing by Robin Emmott)
- Tweet this
- Link this
- Share this
- Digg this
- Reprints
Follow Reuters