Following the outbreak of the coronavirus, many European countries are revising their economic forecasts downwards. The bloc’s economy is at risk of a recession as the virus is holding the euro area’s economy in a stranglehold. Therefore, Sentix’s index for the eurozone slid to the new lows. Eurozone business and consumer confidence index sank to 94.5 points in March from 103.4 points in February, suffering its steepest decline since records began in 1985. Besides, it was the lowest reading since August 2013. After the crash in the manufacturing sector, the services sector also plunged to -2.2 points from 11.1. Taking into consideration the prolonged stagnation in the manufacturing sector, the indicator is highly likely to dip to -10.8 points from -6.2 points. Economists stress that economic moral deteriorated sharply when the virus outbreak intensified. Separately, Italy was hit the most among the EU member states. The country recorded the steepest decline in economic sentiment: in Italy, the index fell to 83.7 from 101.3, in Germany to 92.0 from 101.8, in France to 100.6 from 105.5, and in Spain to 99.3 from 102.7.
