020 7898 0500The main release from the eurozone on Friday was the balance of trade reading for February which showed that the surplus widened by €2.8 billion to €18.9 billion. While this is a strong reading, the figure had been expected to come in at €20.2 billion, so yet again there is some economic data from the eurozone that has missed expectations.
The German inflation rate climbed to 1.6% year-on-year in March from 1.4% the month to fall in line with expectations. The previous reading had been the lowest for 15 months. Inflation increased by 0.4% from February to March which was also what analysts had forecast.
The euro weakened against sterling but traded sideways against the dollar throughout Friday. Today we have no key data releases, but tomorrow we will see the German ZEW economic sentiment index. It is seen as a leading indicator for the German economy and given how eurozone data has disappointed of late, it will be very interesting to see what the outlook is. It is expected to dramatically fall from 5.1 to -1.3 which is indicative of the disappointing start to the year and fears of a trade war with the US.
