- Erkki Liikanen, a member of the ECB's governing council
The Euro zone's current account surplus shrank in January from the preceding month, according to the European Central Bank. The Euro bloc's current account logged an unexpected decline in its surplus to 25.4 billion euros on a seasonally adjusted basis in January, compared with a revised 28.6 billion euros in the prior month. In the 12 months to January, the accumulated current account surplus accounted for 3% of the currency bloc's gross domestic product, up from 2.5% in the 12 months to January 2015.
A separate report showed the Euro zone's consumer confidence deteriorated for the third month in a row in March, amid concerns about weaker growth prospects for the world's economy which have forced the European Central Bank to launch fresh stimulus measures. According to the European Commission, the measure of consumer sentiment across the 19 countries that use the Euro dropped to –9.7 from -8.8 in February, hitting the lowest level since December 2014. The gauge remained above its long-term average of minus 12.8. The decrease of confidence is in line with surveys of business activity, which have pointed to a decline in growth in the early months of 2016. The ECB's economists cut their growth forecast for this year to 1.4% from 1.7% in December.
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