Euro Zone Confidence Declines, Italian Auction Yields 1.77%

Arthi Gupta
26 Apr, 2012
New York City

The euro zone confidence index declined in March after additional weakness in the service sector. Italian treasury sold

[R]2:00 PM Frankfurt – The euro zone confidence index declined in March after additional weakness in the service sector. Italian treasury sold €8.5 billion of short term bonds that yielded 1.77%. Sentiments in Portugal and UK improved.[/R]

Italian Bond Auction

The Italian Treasury sold €8.5 billion of six-month bills at an average yield of 1.772% compared to an average yield of 1.119% at the previous auction on March 28. The bid-to-cover ratio rose to 1.71 from 1.51 last month.

Euro-zone Sentiment Drops

Euro-zone economic confidence fell to 92.8 in April from a revised 94.5 in March, driven mainly by weakening confidence in the industry and services sectors, survey results from the European Commission showed today.

The industrial confidence deteriorated to -9 in April from -7.1 in March. Services confidence dropped to -2.4 in April from -0.3 in March.

The business climate indicator for the euro area decreased by 0.24 points to -0.52 in April, a separate report showed.

Portuguese Economic Sentiment Rises

Portugal''s economic confidence index rose to -4.7 in April from -4.8 in March, data released by Statistics Portugal showed.

The consumer confidence index climbed to -53.3 in April from the -54.5 in March.

UK Confidence Improves

Consumer confidence in the United Kingdom improved in March, according to survey results published by Nationwide.

The consumer confidence index rose to 53 in March, the highest since June 2011, from 44 in February.

UK Mortgage Approvals Drop

The UK mortgage approvals for home purchase dropped to 31,888 in March from 32,840 in February, data released by the British Bankers'' Association showed today.

The total number of mortgage approvals was 65,403 in March compared to 65,606 in February. Gross mortgage lending gained 6.1% to £8.3 billion in March compared to the same period of last year.