There has been a raft of positive data coming from the eurozone for a while now, so it was with no small element of surprise that the balance of trade figures released yesterday showed a contraction.
The figure had been expected to widen to €30.2 billion, but it actually narrowed to €25.4 billion in December 2017. Imports increased by 2.5%, but exports only rose by 1%. It didn’t have that much bearing on the euro, which lost a very small amount of ground against sterling, but still managed to strengthen against the dollar.
Today we will see wholesale prices from Germany. However, this release is not particularly noteworthy as far as the currency markets go, so it is difficult to expect any real movements as a result of this – irrespective what the figure is.