Eurozone economic confidence misses forecasts, weakens unexpectedly in March

The European Commission's monthly sentiment survey showed earlier on Thursday that the overall index for the 19-country currency bloc fell slightly to 107.9 in March from 108.0 in the previous month. The data missed expectations for a rise to 108.3.

A separate business confidence indicator remained unchanged at 0.82 points, holding at the highest level since June 2011 but below market expectations for an increase to 0.86. The industrial confidence index dropped marginally to 1.2 from 1.3, also missing economists' forecast for and improvement to 1.4.

The consumer index of price trends over the next 12 months rose to 15.3 points from 14.5 in February, the highest since October 2013. The indicator for selling price expectations among manufacturers also rose to 9.8 points from 9.0 in February, the highest since July 2011.

Services sector optimism dropped to 12.7 from 13.9 points, and in industry, it fell to 1.2 points from 1.3 in February. The drop in the two main economic sectors was offset by rise in consumer sentiment index which improved to -5, in line with flash estimate, from -6.2 in February.