Eurozone economic confidence improved marginally in September, survey results from the European Commission showed on Wednesday. The Commission said that its economic sentiment indicator, an aggregate gauge of business and consumer confidence, rose to 117.8 in September from 117.6 in August. The result is above a consensus forecast by economists who expected the reading to come in at 116.5.
The stability of the indicator in September resulted from improving confidence in construction and among consumers, being offset by worsening confidence in services and retail trade, the European Commission clarified.
“For now, data remain consistent with a decent pace of recovery,” said Davide Oneglia, an economist at TS Lombard, a research and macroeconomic forecasting consultancy.
Meanwhile, Britain’s economy grew by more than previously thought in the April-June period, official data showed on Thursday, before what looks like a sharp slowdown more recently as bottlenecks in the economy, including a shortage of truck drivers, mount.
Gross domestic product increased by 5.5 per cent in the second quarter, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. That is an improvement on its preliminary estimate of growth of 4.8 per cent and reverses the first quarter’s 1.4 per cent contraction. The ONS said the data had been adjusted to take into account more complete data from the health sector as well as an update of its sources and methodology for calculating British economic output.
Overall, while the upward revisions to GDP are clearly welcome, the second quarter was three months ago, and the recovery appears to have stagnated since, Ruth Gregory, an economist at Capital Economics, said.
Finally, in the US, signed contracts to buy existing homes increased by 8.1 per cent month to month in August, a seven-month high, according to the National Association of Realtors, as buyers encountered higher inventory and slightly more favourable prices. Analysts were expecting a one per cent monthly rise. Signings were still down 8.3 per cent compared with August 2020. August’s increase followed two months of declines, according to the NAR.
“Rising inventory and moderating price conditions are bringing buyers back to the market,” said NAR’s chief economist Lawrence Yun.
“Affordability, however, remains challenging as home price gains are roughly three times wage growth.”
This article has been prepared by Bank of Valletta plc for general information purposes only.