It’s a muted start to the day for the euro, after figures this morning showed that Germany’s economy declined 0.1% last quarter. Business confidence also declined, marking the eighth month below the crucial 100 mark. More positively, French business confidence and consumer confidence are both above 100; we will see if this good news continues with French unemployment figures later today.
There’s a busy week ahead of us for the markets. Tomorrow, we will see German consumer confidence and Italian business and consumer confidence – which will be interesting to see in the context of the current political crisis in the latter. On Thursday, France will release GDP growth figures and we will see a raft of eurozone-wide figures, for business and consumer confidence, economic and industrial sentiment and inflation expectations. Friday will also see a series of data, from Italian unemployment to European inflation, German retail sales and French budget balance.
Greece is set to lift capital controls at the end of this week on businesses and individuals, four years after their introduction. The current limits say that individuals cannot move more than a few thousand of euros every two months. It’s the latest move from a Greece determined to prove, under new Prime Minister Misotakis, that it’s ‘open for business’. Bank of Greece Governor, Yannis Stournaras, said that the lifting of controls ‘marks a return to normality and growing confidence.’
