Official figures show that the euro zone's economy deepened its downturn at the end of 2011 as retail sales fell and sentiment darkened. But the first improvement in the business climate in 10 months offered hope that an expected recession may be mild.
Euro zone retail trade fell by a worse than expected 0.8% in November from October, data from the EU's statistics office Eurostat showed. Economists had expected a smaller fall of 0.2%.
Pointing to the cautiousness of European households, the European Commission said that in December, consumer confidence fell 0.7 points in the euro zone.
In its overall reading of economic sentiment in the euro zone, the Commission said its indicator fell 0.5 points to 93.3.
High unemployment is afflicting the euro zone, hurting consumers. Separate Eurostat figures showed that the euro zone jobless rate was 10.3% of the working population in November, the same as October and up slightly from a year ago, when it was 10%.
One apparent bright spot in the data released today was the improvement in the Commission's business climate indicator, which increased for the first time in 10 months as factory managers showed optimism about future production plans and export order books.
The indicator was -0.31 points in December, compared with -0.42 points in November.
