On 30 July, the European Commission published the Economic Sentiment indicator values for July 2014. The overall indicator for the eurozone remained broadly stable, seeing only a minimum increase of 0.1 points. The value is on 102.2 points, which is slightly above the long-term average. The stagnation resulted from improving sentiment in construction and industry, combined with a worsening sentiment in services and retail trade. In Germany and Spain, the indicator decreased slightly, while France and Italy experienced a slight increase. The managers taking part in the survey, which is the basis of the indicator, expect creation of new jobs in construction and, on the other hand, they expect fewer jobs in services in months to come. Selling price expectations are more or less stable, but services and retail areas expect a slight decrease. This reflects the low inflation levels in the past months.

As for the EU as a whole, the overall Economic Sentiment indicator is at 105.8, that is higher than for the eurozone, but in July decreased by 0.6 points. The decrease is due to worsening sentiment in the biggest non-eurozone EU economies – Poland and the UK. Concerning sectors, the expectations are in line with those of the eurozone, but improvement is not expected in industry. This resulted in overall decrease of the indicator, which is, however, still above long-term average and is a bit higher than that of the eurozone.

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