Eurozone economic sentiment deteriorates as leaders debate debt crisis

Confidence in the euro area fell again in June. The economic sentiment indicator fell to 89.9, the lowest since October 2009, from 90.5 in May.

Germany is now also feeling the weakness in the rest of the eurozone economy. Unemployment there increased by 7,000 in June.

Even as the eurozone economy continues to deteriorate, its leaders continue to argue over the best means to overcome its debt crisis. From Reuters:

Italy and Spain, battling searing market pressure in the euro zone's widening debt crisis, held up agreement on measures to promote growth at a European Union summit on Thursday to demand urgent action to bring down their borrowing costs.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and his Spanish counterpart, Mariano Rajoy, refused to sign off on a 120 billion euro ($149 billion) growth package until EU paymaster Germany approved short-term measures to ease their cost of credit, officials said.

Hours later than planned, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy came out to announce a deal in principle on measures to stimulate infrastructure investment and give more capital to the EU's soft-lending arm, the European Investment Bank.

Meanwhile, the UK economy has also been struggling. First quarter contraction was confirmed at 0.3 percent on Thursday but the contraction in the fourth quarter of 2011 has been revised to 0.4 percent from 0.3 percent.

Another GDP report on Thursday showed that US first quarter annualised economic growth was confirmed at 1.9 percent. The report also showed that corporate profits fell 0.3 percent in the first quarter, the first decrease since the fourth quarter of 2008.