Euro area consumer sentiment steadies in January 2019. In the course of 2018, economic confidence had deteriorated considerably with the Commission’s business and consumer indices indicating broadly similar downward adjustments from the peak around the turn of last year.
However, while so far business sentiment seems to have stayed on a downward trajectory, consumer sentiment has steadied in the initial two months of 2019. Indeed, the Commission’s flash consumer confidence indicator for February today indicated a modest rise for a second straight month, by 0.5 percentage point to -7.4.
Nevertheless, it is worth noting that that was still the third lowest reading of the last 21 months, with the average of the headline index in January and February remaining well below that in the fourth quarter, implying that private consumption growth is unlikely to have picked up any momentum after the moderation last year, noted Daiwa Capital Market Research in a report.
The latest published figures for third quarter indicated that the private consumption growth came in at just 1 percent year-on-year, which was the lowest since 2014.
At 18:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of Euro was neutral at -21.7187, while the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was slightly bearish at -73.6924 more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex
