euro zone march sentiment up

Euro zone March sentiment up

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Reuters

BRUSSELS - Euro zone economic sentiment increased more than expected in March, lifted by a brighter outlook for industry, data showed, pointing to a stronger pace of economic recovery.

A European Commission survey also showed that continued economic recovery from the worst economic crisis in decades had boosted inflation expectations, albeit from a low level.

The survey said sentiment in the 16 countries using the euro had grown to 97.7 points from 95.9 in February against market expectations of a rise to 97.2.

"It's visible that the improvement in the industrial sector is leading the recovery and we expect further increases in coming months in the overall reading," Juergen Michels, analyst at Citigroup said.

Carsten Brzeski of ING said: "It simply indicates that the recovery is gaining pace and gaining traction and what we saw at the turn of the year was just a temporary blip and not a new trend and we now see that the underlying fundamentals of the recovery are relatively strong."