Although stock markets across Europe slumped, there was some welcome positive economic data from Germany yesterday. The eurozone’s largest economy has not been faring all that well of late, but there was some unexpected respite. German industrial orders surprisingly increased by 0.3% in October from the previous month, when the markets had been expecting a 0.4% drop.
Construction PMI also performed an about-turn by climbing to 51.3 in November from a seven-month low of 49.8 in October. Last month the sector stagnated, so the report of growth – albeit modest – will be of some comfort. New orders increased by the most since February 2018 and the pace of job creation also picked up. The euro made some slight gains against the dollar and lost a bit of ground against sterling on a day where the stock markets – and not the currency markets – dominated headlines.
Today, we will see the industrial production figures from Germany, as well the final reading of the employment change figures from the euro area in Q3. However, the main release is the third estimate of the eurozone’s GDP growth rate for the third quarter of 2018. Both the monthly and annual figures are expected to have dropped from the previous period, which is hardly surprising given the recent data releases we have seen from across the eurozone.
