BRUSSELS, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- The Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) decreased slightly in January from its 17-year high in both the eurozone and the European Union, the European Commission said on Tuesday.
Data showed that ESI in eurozone decreased by 0.6 point to 114.7, and by 0.4 point to 114.7 in the EU.
In December, the ESI increased strongly by 1.4 point in the eurozone to 116.0, reaching the highest levels since October 2000.
The softening of eurozone sentiment in January resulted from markedly lower confidence in services and retail trade, while confidence in industry remained stable.
By contrast, confidence increased among consumers and, in particular, construction managers.
Among the largest eurozone economies, the ESI rose in Spain, the Netherlands, and Germany but decreased markedly in France and Italy.
The slightly softer decline of the EU ESI resulted from a steep improvement of sentiment in Poland whose ESI increased by 5 points. While the ESI decreased in the largest non-euro area EU economy the Britain by 0.7 point.
"January's Economic Sentiment Indicators for Central and Eastern Europe suggest that growth in the region as a whole may have picked up even further at the start of this year, to about 5.5-5.8 percent year on year," according to analysis of Capital Economics.
