EUR: euro surges, German economy expands and industrial production up

It was a hugely impressive day for the eurozone yesterday as the German economy was shown to have expanded by 2.2% over the course of 2017. This is the highest rate of growth since 2011 (when it grew by 3.7%). It shows very encouraging signs of a prolonged economic recovery and, as the eurozone’s largest economy, has quite a bearing on the performance of the euro.

Indeed, the single currency climbed higher against the dollar and sterling, although this was more likely a result of the release of the ECB’s mid-December meeting minutes. They showed policymakers might soon prepare markets for the end of their massive stimulus programme.

We also saw the release of the eurozone factory figures which showed industrial production increased by 1% in November, some 3.2% higher than the same month a year previous. The rate for October was also revised upwards from 0.2% to 0.4%. All in all, an extremely good day at the office for the eurozone economy.