020 7898 0500The two key releases for the eurozone today were the German and eurozone ZEW economic sentiment indices. Both had been expected to fall sharply, but by nowhere near as much as they actually did. The international trade conflict with the US appears to be weighing heavily on business leader confidence and the readings are a genuine cause for concern.
The German ZEW had been expected to dip to -1.0 in April from 5.1 the month before, but the figure actually came in at -8.2. It is the lowest reading for more than five years. In the eurozone, it has been expected to dip to 7.3 from 13.4 but it fell to 1.9 – the weakest reading since July 2016.
Attention will now turn to today’s inflation rate release for March, as well as the construction output for February. This too is expected to fall, from 3.7% in January to 2.3%. It is increasingly possible that the eurozone’s economic outlook was a little optimistic.
