The euro zone economy is showing little sign of a turnaround and inflation remains stubbornly above the European Central Bank's target, data showed today.
The figures for economic morale, business sentiment and inflation added to the picture of an economy continuing to struggle to drag itself out of a downturn as the ECB mulls its action on interest rates ahead of a March meeting.
The euro zone economic sentiment index registered 98.2 in February. Although this was unchanged from January, that month's figure was revised down from 98.4.
The components of the index showed differing trends, with industrial and consumer confidence down and construction and retail confidence indicators up.
Industrial confidence slipped to minus 11 from minus 10 and the consumer reading registered minus 19 after minus 18.
The readings were slightly worse than expected by economists. Their consensus forecasts had centred on an overall sentiment index of 98.3.
"A further deterioration in the expected developments of the general economic situation and the expected increase in unemployment are behind the worsening of consumer confidence in both the EU and the euro area," the EU Commission said.
The survey of the wider 15-member European Union showed overall economic sentiment edged up to 98.6 from 98.5 in January, the first improvement since May 2002.
The EU statistics agency said in a statement it estimated euro zone inflation for February would come in at 2.3 per cent, above the final figure for January, which it gave as 2.2 per cent. The January figure was revised upwards from the earlier estimate of 2.1 per cent.