020 7898 0500As expected, Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party won in the German election on Sunday but the victory was marred by the rise of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party. The first openly nationalist party secured third place and is on course to occupy 88 seats in the Bundestag.
On Friday, we saw better-than-expected purchasing managers’ index surveys for the manufacturing and services sector. 0.6% growth in the second quarter leapt to 0.7% in the third, although there was little movement in the euro as a result.
The key releases for this week are the German consumer confidence and inflation rate on Thursday, followed by the business confidence report for the eurozone. Then, on Friday we’ll get the unemployment numbers from Germany. July’s figures showed they were at their lowest rate since October 1980 so it will be interesting to see whether the rate drops lower.
