Euro Area Money Supply Grows 2.5%; Italian Confidence Wanes

Arthi Gupta
27 Feb, 2012
New York City

Euro area leading economic index, money supply growth and French producer prices rose in January. Italian confidence declined for the third straight month in February.

[R]2:00 PM Frankfurt – Euro area leading economic index, money supply growth and French producer prices rose in January. Italian confidence declined for the third straight month in February.[/R]

Euro-zone Leading Index Rises

The leading economic index of the euro-zone increased to 104.1 in January from 103.1 in December, data from a survey by Conference Board showed on Monday.

The coincident economic index, which measures the current situation, remained unchanged at 102.6 in January.

Separately, euro-zone''s broad monetary aggregate M3 grew 2.5% from a year ago in January from the 1.5% rise in December, data published by the European Central Bank showed.

French Producer Prices Up

Producer prices in France rose 4.2% on an annual basis in January, data released by statistics office Insee showed.

Prices of food, beverages and tobacco climbed 3.9% annually in January.

From a month ago, output prices advanced 0.6% in January compared to the 0.1% fall in December.

Italian Confidence Drops

The Italian business sentiment index fell to 91.5 in February from 92.1 in January, the statistics office Istat said today.

The seasonally adjusted confidence index in construction rose to 82.5 in February from 82.4 in January.

Swedish Money Supply Growth Climbs

Sweden''s broad monetary aggregate M3 rose 8.8% in January from the 6.4% expansion in December, Statistics Sweden said today. In total, the M3 money supply increased to SEK 2,440 billion in January.

The annual growth in the narrow monetary aggregate M1 rose to 3.2% in January from 0.9% in December.