Business confidence in the euro zone reached a three-month high in March, mainly due to improvement in all sectors except construction, a European Commission poll showed on Wednesday. The Eurozone Consumer Confidence Index rose by 0.6 points in March compared to February.
According to preliminary estimates released by the EC, the euro area consumer confidence index was -14.9 in March, up from -15.5 in February. Economists polled by Reuters had predicted a decline of -15.0. Consumer confidence continued to improve as households' perceptions of their past and future financial situation improved and negative expectations about the overall economic situation declined slightly.
Meanwhile, uncertainty about U.S. corporate sales and employment growth has receded. U.S. businesses' concerns about uncertainty over sales growth and employment over the next four quarters eased slightly in March, Atlanta Fed survey results released Wednesday showed. The smoothed measure of uncertainty in sales revenue growth fell to 3.73% from 3.84% in February.
Furthermore, the employment uncertainty index decreased in March, falling to 4.07% from 4.14% in the previous month. The survey also showed that job growth expectations have improved recently, with job growth uncertainty returning to pre-pandemic levels. According to the study, companies will be asked to revise their employment forecasts by 4.5% if there is an unexpected change (positive or negative) in sales growth over the next year.
Finally, the data confirms that the UK economy went into recession last year. The Office for Statistics has confirmed that the UK will enter a technical recession towards the end of 2023 after its latest estimates showed the economy will contract in the last two quarters of the year. Gross domestic product fell unrevised by 0.3%, following a 0.1% decline in the global economy. Third quarter.
As a result, the UK economy will grow by just 0.1% in 2023, a far cry from the 4.3% growth recorded in 2022. The UK economy looked set to start 2024 on stronger footing as GDP rose 0.2% year-on-year in January. previous month. Unofficial polls also showed that growth continued in February and March. Due to a slow recovery from the pandemic, the country's economy is expanding by just 1% compared to late 2019 levels, with only Germany among the G7 countries faring worse.
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