Yesterday, the deputy prime minister of Italy, Luigi Di Maio, argued that the French government should also face disciplinary action from the EU, following Emmanuel Macron’s promise to increase wages and cut taxes. Di Maio said “If the deficit/GDP rules are valid for Italy, then I expect them to be valid for Macron.” The remarks allude to France’s 3.5% budget deficit proposal, when Italy has been criticised by the EU for submitting a deficit of 2.4% of GDP.
The German ZEW economic sentiment index increased by 6.6 points to -17.5 in December, which was far better than the -25 the markets had been expecting. However, while this news will be welcomed, the figure is clearly still in negative territory as the international trade dispute and Brexit continues to have an adverse effect. In the eurozone, the ZEW also beat expectations, by increasing to -21 from -22 the previous month.
Today we have the industrial production figures from the eurozone in October. On a monthly basis, the markets are expecting a figure of 0.2% growth from a 0.3% contraction in the previous period. Year-on-year, a figure of 0.7% is expected, a slight slip from the 0.9% posted the previous month.
