The economic confidence in the euro zone fell slightly but remained close to a six-year high in April despite a stronger euro and economic slowdown in the United States.

The economic sentiment indicator in the 13-nation bloc sharing the same currency edged down to 111.0 in April from a revised 111. 1 in March, the highest level since 2001, the European Commission said on Monday.

Analysts had expected the indicator to rise to 111.7.

The monthly indicator, based on business and consumer surveys, also eased by 0.2 point to 113.6 in the European Union.

The surveys are conducted in different sectors of the economy, namely industry, services, construction and retail trade as well as consumers.

In the euro zone, confidence in all sectors remained stable except for the industry sector, where the indicator rose by one point. Similar situation went with the EU, where only retail trade confidence registered an increase of two points.

At the individual country level, the picture was mixed, with a roughly equal number of countries reporting increases or decreases in sentiment.

Germany, the largest economy in the 27-nation bloc, registered an increase of 1.4 points. The indicator decreased by 0.9 point in Britain and remained practically unchanged in France.

In a separate report released today, the European Commission said that the business climate indicator for the euro zone picked up in April, reaching an all-time high, after leveling off in March.

Managers' views on total order books, production trend observed in recent months and production expectations for the months ahead improved slightly in April, while managers' assessment of their stocks of finished products and export order books remained stable.

The high level of the business climate indicator argues well for continued strong industrial production growth in the first two quarters of 2007, the commission said.

The positive trend was observed in the EU when the U.S., the world's largest economy, recorded a four-year low increase of 0.3 percent in the first quarter. The U.S. economic slowdown pushed the euro to a record rate to dollar at the end of last week, making it harder for EU exports.

Source: Xinhua