Bloomberg: European Confidence Rises for First Time in 11 Months - by Jurjen van de Pol

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European confidence in the economic outlook increased for the first time in 11 months in April as inflation slowed and governments boosted spending to combat the recession. An index of executive and consumer sentiment in the 16 nations that use the euro rose to 67.2, the first increase since May 2008, the European Commission in Brussels said today. The April reading was above the 65.6 median estimate of 26 economists in a Bloomberg survey, and up from 64.7 in March. Euro-area capacity utilization for the quarter fell to 70.5 percent, the lowest since 1990, the commission said. The confidence report “will fuel hopes that the economy may now be past the worst of the recession,” said Colin Ellis, an economist at Daiwa Securities SMBC Europe Ltd. in London. “With euro-area domestic demand likely to remain weak, any resumption in growth may have to wait for world demand to recover.”