Unexpected improvement in Eurozone sentiment will be welcome news to policymakers

FXStreet (London) - The index of executive and household confidence released by Eurostat indicated that confidence had improved from 100.8, up from 100.7 in October. The rise in the sentiment index surprised many who had expected to see declines after recent weak European macroeconomic data.

The improvement in the economic sentiment index will be a relief to European policymakers after European Central Bank president Mario Draghi this morning stressed that time was needed for stimulus measure enacted by the central bank to filter through to the economy and comes as pressure increased for the ECB to enact a sovereign bond purchase programme.