国际英语新闻：Eurozone consumer confidence drops in December

BRUSSELS, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Flash consumer confidence for the euro area dropped in December after six months of improvement, the European Commission said on Monday.

The consumer confidence indicator dropped from -9.4 in November to -11.0 in December, according to the monthly survey conducted by the European Commission.

Confidence of consumers among the 27-member European Union (EU) declined from -11.0 in November to -12.1 in December.

But the European Commission said that the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI), which reflects overall economic confidence of both consumers and producers, increased further in both the euro area and the EU in November.

The ESI climbed by 1.3 points to 105.2 in the EU and by 1.5 points to 105.3 in the euro area, driven by strong positive readings in Germany.

Among the seven largest member states, Germany saw the most significant increase of 2.8 points, followed by Italy, up 1.4 points.