The European Commission said its euro zone economic sentiment indicator for February rose to a forecast-beating 102.7 from 101.5 in December. Economists polled by AFX News had forecast a level of 102.2. The industrial confidence component of the indicator improved to minus two from minus four, and consumer confidence rose to minus 10 from minus 11, while services confidence eased to 14 from 15. Economists had forecast minus three for the industrial confidence indicator and minus 10 for consumer confidence. The commission said: "The upward trend of the economic sentiment indicator that began last summer continued in February." Equally, the commission's business climate indicator was up in February, rising to 0.61 from January's 0.34. "The improvement of the indicator suggest that industrial production growth has picked up further since the start of this year," the commission said. The commission attributed the upturn to a rise in industry managers' assessment of the production trend observed in recent months. Their assessment of total order books and export order books also picked up, with production expectations for the months ahead and assessment of stocks of finished products improving only marginally