The Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) remained unchanged in the EU, and declined by 0.7 points in the euro area in October 2012. Consumer confidence remained broadly unchanged. For the same period, the Business Climate Indicator (BCI) for the euro area also decreased. The decline was driven by markedly worsened assessments of order books and past production.

In October 2012 compared with September, the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) remained unchanged in the EU, at 86.2, and declined by 0.7 points in the euro area, to 84.5. In the euro area marked decreases in industry and construction outweighed the improvement in the retail trade sector, while confidence in services and among consumers remained broadly stable. However, consumer confidence remained broadly unchanged. In August 2012, Business Climate Indicator picked up slightly in the euro area while Economic sentiment declined further.

With regard to the figures by member states, although the majority of them witnessed a drop in economic sentiment, this was only the case for three out of the seven largest Member States, Poland (-2.8), France ( 1.8) and Germany (-1.4). However, the ESI continued last month's recovery in the UK (+5.2) and Spain (+1.8) and rose slightly in the Netherlands (+0.8) and Italy (+0.5). In addition, confidence in financial services, which is not included in the ESI, increased strongly in both the EU (+8.7) and the euro area (+7.4). The increases were driven by markedly improved assessments of the past business situation, past demand and demand expectations.

Also in October 2012, the Business Climate Indicator (BCI) for the euro area decreased by 0.28 points to 1.62. The decline was driven by markedly worsened assessments of order books (overall and export) and past production. Managers' production expectations and their assessment of the adequacy of their stocks of finished products also worsened.