020 7898 0500Following Monday’s extremely disappointing German factory orders release, all eyes were on industrial production yesterday. The markets had expected a drop of 0.5% in June, but the figure actually came in at -0.9% to create further headaches for eurozone business leaders.
The decline was led by lower production of consumer, capital and intermediate goods, while construction activity also shrank by 3.2%. Meanwhile, the German trade surplus fell to €21.8 billion in June 2018 from €22.8 billion in the same month of last year. Imports jumped 10.2% to an all-time high, while exports increased by 7.8%.
The euro actually had a good day and strengthened against both the dollar and sterling. The trade surplus figures no doubt buoyed the markets and industrial production could certainly have been worse. There are no releases for the eurozone today, so any movements will likely come from events elsewhere.
