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Euro area developments
The deterioration of euro-area sentiment resulted from lower confidence in industry, services, retail trade and among consumers, while confidence improved markedly in construction. Amongst the largest euro-area economies, the ESI remained broadly unchanged in Germany (−0.2), France (−0.1), Italy (+0.1) and the Netherlands (+0.2), while it saw another significant decrease in Spain (−3.0).
EU developments
Behind the commensurate decline of the headline indicator for the EU (−0.9) is an offsetting of a sharp deterioration of sentiment in Poland (−1.9) by a strong improvement in the UK (+1.8). In line with the euro area, construction confidence improved markedly and consumer confidence deteriorated, while the deterioration of EU confidence in services and retail trade was much stronger than in the euro area. On the other hand, EU confidence in industry remained broadly stable. As regards financial services confidence, the drop in the EU aggregate was in line with euro-area developments.