Economic and business sentiment improved in the euro area in February

The European Commission’s business sentiment index and economic indicator improved in the euro area in February.

A separate business confidence indicator, which points to the phase of the business cycle, rose to 0.82 points in February from 0.76 in January.
This marked the highest since June 2011 and was well above market expectations of a 0.79 reading.
The improvement in economic sentiment was driven mainly by more optimism in industry, with the index rising there to 1.3 point from 0.8 in January, and in the services sector where it rose to 13.8 from 12.8. (MTI)