According to the report from European Commission, In July 2020, the recovery of the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) continued. Registering a sharp increase in the euro area (+6.5 points up to 82.3) and the EU (+6.9 points up to 81.8),1 the ESI in both regions has so far recovered around half of the combined losses of March and April. Also the Employment Expectations Indicator (EEI) improved markedly for the third month in a row (by 4.0 points to 87.0 in the euro area and by 4.1 points to 87.0 in the EU).

In the euro area, the ESI’s recovery was driven by sharp confidence increases in industry, services, and retail trade. By contrast, confidence worsened slightly in construction and remained broadly stable among consumers.

From a country perspective, the ESI continued to recover in all the largest euro-area economies, namely in Spain (+7.5), Italy (+6.7), Germany (+6.5), the Netherlands (+5.3), and France (+4.8). All in all, in these countries, between 40 and 60% of confidence losses suffered during the lockdown were recovered.