By Ed Frankl
Economic confidence in the eurozone edged higher in June, as selling-price expectations fell back and after oil prices declined on cooling tensions in the Middle East.
The European Commission said Monday that its economic sentiment gauge rose to 95.0 from 93.7 in May, albeit remaining well below its long-term average of 100. A consensus of economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected 94.5.
The pickup in the headline indicator was driven by improving confidence in almost all sectors surveyed--retail trade, industry, services--and among consumers, though sentiment in construction declined, the commission said.
Views of the economy were helped as managers' selling-price expectations continued to decline from their April peaks, while consumers' views of inflation in the coming 12 months also eased. Respondents were surveyed between June 1 and 22, overlapping with the announcement of the suspension of hostilities between the U.S. and Iran.
Write to Ed Frankl at edward.frankl@wsj.com