EU: Consumer Confidence Indicator improves slightly to -14.7 in August vs. -15 expected

• Consumer confidence in the euro area recovered modestly in August.
• EUR/USD continues to edge lower pressured by broad USD strength.

The Consumer Confidence Indicator for the euro area improved slightly to -14.7 in August's preliminary reading from -15, the data published by the European Commission showed on Friday. This reading came in better than the market expectation of -15.

Additional takeaways

"At -14.7 points (euro area) and -15.5 points (EU), both indicators remain well below their long-term averages of -11.1 (euro area) and −10.5 (EU)."

"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)."

"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)."

Market reaction

The shared currency failed to gather strength against its rivals after this data. As of writing, the EUR/USD pair was down 0.85% on a daily basis at 1.1758.