Official figures show economic sentiment in the 16 countries that use the euro rose above its long-term average during April despite mounting concerns about the debt crisis afflicting Greece.

The European Union said Thursday that its main economic sentiment indicator rose by 2.7 points to 100.6 in the eurozone during April, with the majority of countries posting across-the-board improvements — Germany, the eurozone's biggest economy, showed a substantial rise. Sentiment was also broadly up across sectors, too.

Despite the improvement, the EU warns that further sustained improvements are required for economic activity to reach levels before the financial crisis and the recession.