Eurozone sentiment falls again in July

(Sharecast News) - Economic sentiment in the eurozone dropped for the third month in a row in July to 94.5 from 95.3, confirming recent surveys that the single-currency bloc faced a potential recession. Services sentiment fell to 5.7 after an upwardly-revised 5.9 in June, while manufacturing confidence slumped to -9.4, after a revised -7.3 last month. Construction sentiment also declined to -3.1 after -2.4 In June.

The only positive was an advance in consumer confidence to -15.1 from -16.1 in June, while retail confidence climbed to -4.5 after -5.9 in June.

"With GDP growth already trending around the zero line, this means that the risk of recession is increasing somewhat. Still, a prolonged economic slump is not our base case at the moment," said analysts at ING.