Business sentiment in the eurozone declined sharply

The data of the European Commission showed that business sentiment in the eurozone deteriorated markedly, which was a new sign of the weakness of the bloc's economy. this was the end of the year in December when optimism fell every month.

More gloomy expectations have partly reflected a decline in confidence in industrial production. For example, there has been a decline in industrial production for three months in a row in Germany, the largest economy in the eurozone. As a result, given the weak prospects for economic growth, business sentiment fell to 107.3 points in the last month of this year compared to 109.5 points in November, which was the lowest monthly indicator since January 2017. Economists had expected a less sharp drop, to 108.2 points. Moods in the industrial sector fell to 1.1 points in December from 3.4 in the previous month, while the forecast was 2.9 points.

Consumer sentiment also fell sharply to -6.2 points in December from -3.9 in November, but this did not prevent buyers from purchasing more goods since retail sales continued to grow in November. Consequently, retail trade confidence rose by 0.5 points in December, although it could not smooth out the general gloomy moods. In the service sector, the indicator fell to 1.4 points. The Business sentiment confirms the expectations of economists, who predicted a slowdown in the growth of the eurozone in the last quarter of the year after GDP growth fell to 0.2 percent in the third quarter from 0.4 percent in the period from April to June.