"With more austerity in the pipeline and the debt crisis still unresolved, any significant pickup in economic confidence in the remainder of this year might fail to occur"
- Martin van Vliet, an economist at ING Group
Economic confidence in the euro zone fell by more than expected in April, a sign the economy is far from out of the woods. An index of executive and consumer sentiment declined to 92.8 from a revised 94.5 in March, European Commission data showed on Thursday.
"With more austerity in the pipeline and the debt crisis still unresolved, any significant pickup in economic confidence in the remainder of this year might fail to occur," said Martin van Vliet, an economist at ING Group in Amsterdam.
"This could jeopardize a return to modest positive growth later this year."
It "is a thoroughly depressing survey all around," said Howard Archer, chief European economist at IHS Global Insight in London.
"Indeed, April's marked drop in euro-zone consumer and business confidence means that the gains in sentiment made in the first two months of the year have been wiped out."
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