EUR: great day for eurozone economic data as German GDP smashes forecasts

It was an extremely good day for the eurozone yesterday, as several countries posted positive economic data. Italy’s economy was shown to have grown by some 0.5% in the third quarter of 2017, against an expectation of 0.4%, while Germany’s GDP smashed forecasts by coming in at 0.8%. It was expected to come in at 0.6% and, as the eurozone’s largest economy, is leading the way in terms of economic recovery.

The eurozone’s inflation came in as expected at 0.6% for the third quarter of this year. Meanwhile, the German ZEW economic sentiment index came in at 18.7 for November 2017. While this represents an increase of 1.1 points, it was lower than the 20.0 expected. Still, given the extremely positive news elsewhere, it was received with the minimum of fuss.

Today sees the balance of trade release. The deficit between imports and exports is expected to increase to €25.1 billion. This could further bolster the euro in what has already proved quite a strong week so far.