Finance
Euro zone business conditions improving, AI is booming, ECB survey shows
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on October 31, 2025
Global Banking and Finance Review
Company
Global Banking and Finance Review is an online platform offering news, analysis, and opinion on the latest trends, developments, and innovations in the banking and finance industry worldwide. The platform covers a diverse range of topics, including banking, insurance, investment, wealth management, fintech, and regulatory issues. The website publishes news, press releases, opinion and advertorials on various financial organizations, products and services which are commissioned from various Companies, Organizations, PR agencies, Bloggers etc. These commissioned articles are commercial in nature. This is not to be considered as financial advice and should be considered only for information purposes. It does not reflect the views or opinion of our website and is not to be considered an endorsement or a recommendation. We cannot guarantee the accuracy or applicability of any information provided with respect to your individual or personal circumstances. Please seek Professional advice from a qualified professional before making any financial decisions. We link to various third-party websites, affiliate sales networks, and to our advertising partners websites. When you view or click on certain links available on our articles, our partners may compensate us for displaying the content to you or make a purchase or fill a form. This will not incur any additional charges to you. To make things simpler for you to identity or distinguish advertised or sponsored articles or links, you may consider all articles or links hosted on our site as a commercial article placement. We will not be responsible for any loss you may suffer as a result of any omission or inaccuracy on the website.
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on October 31, 2025
FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Euro zone firms are enjoying a slight improvement in business conditions but this still points to only modest growth, even if some sectors, such as AI, are booming, the ECB's survey of non-financial companies showed on Friday.
The ECB kept policy unchanged on Thursday, saying the economic outlook remained in line with its earlier projections for slow but steady growth as tariff headwinds are offset by consumption.
"Many firms were investing strongly in digital infrastructure, giving rise to substantially growing demand for software and databases, particularly cloud solutions, and AI," the ECB said.
Firms said these investments were particularly strong in the financial and public sectors and the increasing deployment of artificial intelligence was also starting to disrupt the business model of traditional consultancy firms.
Meanwhile, manufacturing, continued to struggle.
"Manufacturing output was still weighed down by tariffs, uncertainty and challenges to competitiveness as well as relatively muted growth in consumer goods spending, with little improvement anticipated in the short term," the ECB said.
Construction was, however, slowly turning the corner, and firms pointed to good or reasonable growth, linked especially to consumer spending on tourism and hospitality, and to investment in software, data solutions and artificial intelligence, the ECB added.
Consumer spending remained lacklustre, appliance and electronics manufacturers were more positive and contacts in tourism, hospitality and entertainment had grown strongly over the summer.
Machine investment still remained subdued but spending on AI was booming.
The survey also showed that the employment outlook remained relatively subdued, wage growth was moderating and selling price momentum was showing a further slight slowdown.
(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi, Editing by Timothy Heritage)