Germany has been struggling so much of late that the eurozone’s largest economy must be thankful for small mercies. So it will be faintly pleasing that the latest Germany ZEW economic sentiment index reading beat expectations. In February, the figure rose by 1.6 points to -13.4, better than the -14 the markets had been expecting. However, the reading is clearly still in negative territory and is well below the long-term average of 22.4 points. This suggests that financial market experts do not expect a rapid economic recovery in the next six months.
The eurozone’s ZEW reading also increased to -16.6 this month from -20.9 in January and better than the -18.2 the markets had been expecting. While this reading is also in negative territory, it is the strongest reading since September 2018. December’s construction output increased by 0.7% from a year earlier, which was some way below market expectations of 2.1%. All in all, a bit of a mixed day for the eurozone.
The European Central Bank has a non-monetary policy meeting today and we will also see the eurozone’s flash consumer confidence reading for February. Tomorrow is the busiest day of the week for Europe, with the German inflation rate set for release, as well as manufacturing and services PMI readings from Germany and the eurozone.
