Euro area Economic Sentiment Indicator declines to 112.7 in January vs. 114.5 expected

• Euro area consumer and business sentiment deteriorated slightly in January.
• EUR/USD continues to trade in the negative territory below 1.1150.

The monthly data published by the European Commission showed on Friday that the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) eased further in January in both the EU (-1.4 points to 111.6) and the euro area (-1.1 points to 112.7). The market expectation was for the ESI to improve to 114.5 in the euro area.

Further details of the publication revealed that Industrial Confidence declined to 13.9 in the euro area from 14.6 and Services Sentiment edged lower to 91. from 10.9. Both of these prints came in worse than analysts' estimates.

Finally, Consumer Confidence fell by 0.4 points to -8.5, slightly weaker than the flash estimate of -8.4.

Market reaction

The shared currency showed no immediate reaction to these figures. As of writing, the EUR/USD pair was down 0.1% on a daily basis at 1.1132.