In June, University of Michigan consumer confidence rose from 68.7 to 69.0, according to the first estimate. The outcome is somewhat disappointing as the consensus was hoping to see an outcome of 69.5. Looking at the details, the economic outlook deteriorated (from 69.4 to 65.4) in June after improving significantly in May. The economic conditions sub-index, on the contrary, extended its upward trend, rising from 67.7 to 74.5.
EMU: industrial production disappoints in April
In April, euro zone industrial production dropped by 1.9% M/M, while the consensus was looking for a softer decline (-0.4% M/M). The previous figure was however upwardly revised from -2.0% M/M to -1.4% M/M. The breakdown shows that weakness was broad based with all industry groups tumbling significantly. The deterioration was led by a 2.7% M/M decline in capital goods, 1.7% M/M in intermediate goods and 1.1% M/M in energy. Durable (-0.8% M/M) and non-durable goods (-0.7% M/M) showed a somewhat softer, but still significant drop. This is the eighth consecutive decline and again bigger than expected, which indicates that the “hard data” remain weak in the euro zone, but the figures are rather outdated and therefore market impact was limited.
