Confidence in the combined economy of the euro zone held steady in May despite expectations for a fall, according to an EU survey today.
The European Commission's euro zone economic sentiment indicator remained unchanged in May from April at 97.1 points, the lowest point since August 2005, but higher than economists' forecast for 96.6 points.
However, confidence in the economy of the broader 27-nation European Union fell in May to 96.7 points from 98 points in April, the survey said.
Among the biggest countries, the commission said that confidence remained stable in regional heavyweight Germany and improved sharply in Italy, reversing a recent decline in what is currently one of Europe's weakest economies.
Confidence in the British and French economies slid sharply while Poland and Spain also saw a weaker economic outlook.
A breakdown of the data by sector showed a drop in consumer confidence in both the euro zone and EU, which economists said was a bad sign for the overall economy.
But offering a ray of light, the European Commission's separate monthly business climate survey registered a pick-up to 0.54 points in May from 0.43 points in April.
'The increase is mainly due to an improvement in industry managers' appraisals of the production trend in recent months,' the commission said in a statement.
