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EU Economic Update – 06 April 2015
European equities remain buoyant despite mixed economic data
In Europe equity markets remained buoyant last week despite a hotchpotch of positive and negative economic releases for the period, indicating that easy ECB policy is likely to continue as the key driver of continental markets for the time being.
In detail, German CPI, retail sales and unemployment figures for the month of March all emerged stronger than expected, while Spanish unemployment also fell further than expected during the same period.
Further on the upside, European inflation also rebounded further during March from -0.3% in Feb to -0.1% last month, thanks to a continued rebound in oil prices.
As a result, the Euro area on the whole appears to be continuing its nascent upturn as economic conditions ease with the implementation of ECB QE.
However, lagging data released for the month of February showed French consumer spending falling unexpectedly, while more recent figures also pointed toward an uptick in both Italian and continent wide unemployment. This took some of the shine off of the what was, asides from that, a very positive week for the European economies.
Looking ahead the economic data calendar is sparsely populated for the current week, with just some retail sales and services data for due out from Spain and the bloc as a whole.
However, we do see these as being likely to form a notable deterrent to markets as, for the time being at least, the ECB’s monetary policy appears to be proving more than sufficient enough to keep markets propped up.
German (Black), French (Red), Spanish (Blue) Markets
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