Things are finally starting to look up for Europe's economy

The European Commission just released its latest confidence figures, and the trend is up.

That caps off a morning of positive news stories for European economies:

• Economic sentiment is at 102.1. Anything over 100 is in positive territory, and that's the highest reading since summer 2014.
• Consumer confidence is still at -6.7, below the neutral zero mark. But that's the best reading since late 2007.
• Germany's consumer confidence hit a 13-year high in February, according to a private sector survey collected by Gfk.
• German unemployment also fell by another 20,000 in January, despite the fact that Germany is already setting record-low unemployment levels.

All in all, good news.

Figures released this morning also showed significant money supply growth: That's a slightly complicated way of saying that the amount of money circulating in the economy is climbing at a much faster rate.

Here's a chart from Pantheon Macroeconomics showing M1, a measure of the money supply, against industrial production in the eurozone:

If something close to the previous trend holds, it looks like there may be a cyclical recovery around the corner for Europe, after years of recession and stagnation.