Eurozone sentiment at 15-year low

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Confidence among consumers and businesses in the eurozone has fallen to a 15-year low in November, figures have indicated.

The European Commission's economic sentiment indicator for the eurozone dropped to 74.9 from 80.0 in October.

"The picture shows that we are in a deep recession," Christoph Weil at Commerzbank said.

Most analysts now expect the European Central Bank (ECB) to cut interest rates for the eurozone next week.

"Appropriate would be up to 100 basis points [interest rate cut], but that would be radical for the ECB - 75 basis points [to 2.5% from 3.25%] would be worth considering," said Holger Schmieding at Bank of America.

The Commission's measure of consumer confidence in the eurozone declined to -25 from -24 in October, while services sentiment fell to -12 from -7 and industrial sentiment dropped to -25 from -18.

The eurozone economy is now considered to be in recession having contracted for two consecutive quarters.

On Wednesday, the European Commission unveiled an economic recovery plan worth 200bn euros ($260bn; £170bn) which it hopes will save millions of European jobs.