According to the EU statistics agency, in March, the economic sentiment indicator rose to 103.9 points. It is at its highest level since mid-2011.
The data exceeded the forecast of analysts who expected growth to 103 points from 102.3 points in February, when the figure was revised from 102.1.
Due to this fact, companies and the currency bloc’s consumers paid their attention to the ECB’s quantitative easing program and the economic recovery instead of the risks connected with Greece.
In March, the services confidence index climbed to 6 points from 5.3 points. Analysts expected a rise to 5.2 points against 4.5 points which were initially released. The industrial confidence index surged to -2.9, marking its strongest level since May 2014. The average forecast had been -4 points.
The final score of the economic sentiment index met the forecast of -3.7 points, the highest since July 2007. In the previous month, the indicator reached the score of -6.7 points.
In February 2015, bank lending in the eurozone rose for a fourth month. That is the longest increase since October 2011.
According to the data form the European Central Bank, eurozone bank lending climbed by 0.2% from January.
