European chief executives officers told CNBC Thursday that the outlook for an economic recovery was mostly encouraging.
Major European markets rallied in afternoon trading, helped by solid earnings from a host of major companies.
Dassault Systèmes President and CEO Bernard Charles
"What we see is an improved situation in terms of what we call product planning, in the creation new products around the manufacturing industries."
In addition, there was more strength in the companiesEuropean business than the US business, Charles said.
Publicis CEO Maurice Levy
"Clients are looking for efficiency and more for their advertising dollars … We have to reengineer our business to be able to meet their needs."
Ranstad CEO Ben Noteboom
"Recruitment is seeing a 16 percent growth and 40 percent growth in Germany, one of our key markets. There are 70,000 people more employed every day than a year ago."
Siemens President and CEO Peter Loscher
"We can see that growth is back …our growth is driven by strength in emerging markets, our clean tech portfolio and our strong service business."
BASF CEO Jürgen Hambrecht
"We are hiring in Europe and Asia, but a little bit cautious in North America."
Statoil CEO Helge Lund
"Medium term it is very negative that we have to delay our exploration program."