The Commission has launched a slew of figures today and, how can I put it they don't make particularly happy reading,

1) December 2007: Economic sentiment continues to weaken in both the EU and the euro area

In the EU, managers' production expectations and their assessment of order books deteriorated, contributing to the overall decline in industrial confidence.

2) December 2007: Business Climate Indicator for the euro area declines in December.

The decrease in the BCI is essentially caused by a worsening of industry managers' assessment of the production trend observed in recent months. To a lesser extent, managers' assessments of their production expectations and total order books also contributed to the decline.

3) Industrial producer prices up by 0.8% in euro area.

In November 2007 compared with October 2007, the industrial producer price index1 rose by 0.8% in the euro area (EA13) and by 1.1% in the EU272. In October3 prices increased by 0.7% in the euro area and by 0.9% in the EU27.