Today is an important day for the eurozone, with early pressure on the euro coming from this morning’s poor GDP readings from Spain. Later on today, Eurozone GDP is also expected to enter the negative. The European Central Bank is expected to announce, or at least indicate a future scaling-up of its bond-buying programme, while keeping interest rates – already at historic lows – untouched.
Yesterday saw the euro make slight gains against the pound, with poor data readings largely priced in by the markets. Industrial and services sentiment both declined faster than expected, while business confidence also dropped further. On the hand, German inflation came in better than forecast, although the country’s government is worried about the future of its economy. The Minister for the Economy, Peter Altmaier, said yesterday that the Federal Republic will ‘experience the worst recession in [its] history’.
