Belgian households turned slightly less pessimistic about their finances and the general economy in April after showing a deterioration in sentiment in the previous month, data released by the National Bank of Belgium showed Friday.
The headline consumer confidence index increased to -20 in April from -24 in March. In February and January, the readings were -17 and -23 respectively.
The improvement in morale mainly reflected a less pessimistic outlook with regard to macroeconomic developments. In particular, fears of a further economic decline and of an increase in unemployment were significantly assuaged.
Households' perception of their own financial situation turned slightly more downbeat during the month, with the relevant indicator dropping to -4 from -3 in March. However, they were less downbeat about their capacity to save. The corresponding sub-index rose to -4 from -7 in the previous month.
The measure of consumers' views of the Belgian economy rose sharply to -15 in April from -22 in the previous month, which was notably lower than January's reading of -10.
Meanwhile, the indicator of unemployment perceptions dropped to 56 from 63, suggesting a marked improvement of sentiment regarding the employment situation, data showed.
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