国际英语新闻：Eurozone economic confidence drops from highest point in May

BRUSSELS, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Economic confidence in the eurozone dropped in May from a two-year high in the previous month, a survey conducted by the European Commission showed on Monday.

The economic sentiment indicator for the 16-nation bloc sharing the euro decreased by 2.2 points to 98.4, while in the 27-nation European Union (EU), the monthly indicator, based on business and consumer survey, was down by 1.9 points to 100.0.

The commission said that "the latest developments in the ESI are influenced by the change of classification of economic activities that was implemented for the business surveys in May, leading to a break in the series."

The surveys are conducted in different sectors of the economy, namely industry, services, construction and retail trade, as well as among consumers.

Regarding individual sectors, sentiment in industry was the only one continuing to improve, while all other sectoral sentiment indicators deteriorated.

Meanwhile, the Consumer Confidence Indicator declined markedly by 3 points both in the EU and the eurozone.

Consumers were worried about the general economic outlook, although their assessment of the labor market continued to improve, the commssion said.