Eurozone unemployment has been falling since 2004

Brussels said its Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) weakened to 104.7 in December, from 104.8 in November and the lowest point since March 2006.

The European Central Bank meets on Thursday to decide if it should change interest rates, currently 4%.

High inflation levels make it unlikely rates will fall, analysts said, despite shaky economic confidence.

The ECB has to find the right balance between cooling inflation, which remains stubbornly above its 2% target, and not derailing the eurozone's fragile economy, said Howard Archer, an economist at Global Insight.

"On balance, we expect the ECB to maintain a tightening bias at this Thursday's policy meeting and to keep up its hawkish rhetoric, but to nevertheless leave its key interest rate at 4%," he added.

"Indeed, we suspect that eurozone interest rates are set to stay at 4% for many months to come."

Difficult position

Separately, unemployment remained at 7.2% in November, its lowest rate since the eurozone was formed in 1999 and unchanged from the previous month, EU statistics office Eurostat said.

A strong labour market could lead to higher wages, in turn pushing up consumer prices, a fact that could increase ECB wariness of lowering rates, analysts warned.

Producer prices climbed an annualised 4.1% in November, the biggest annualised jump since December 2006.