Juan Pedro Marín-Arrese | Blaming Putin for the current inflationary bout no longer holds. No one disputes that sanctions aimed at crippling the Russian economy following the aggression on Ukraine have made the prices of vital commodities skyrocket, mainly due to wild speculative movements. Nowadays, we are witnessing sharp falls in raw materials while prices gather further momentum. Thus, claiming we only face a cost shock from such products seems…
Crédito y Caución expects the Russian invasion of Ukraine to cut Eurozone GDP growth by one percentage point to 2.9% in 2022, due to supply chain disruption, higher commodity prices and the adverse impact on business and consumer confidence. This impact assessment, subject to a high level of uncertainty, is based on two assumptions: that the conflict will not continue beyond 2022 and that sanctions will be strengthened but not…
The number of registered workers in the Eurozone exceeded in the fourth quarter of 2021 the figure recorded in the same period of 2019, thus recovering for the first time the level of employment prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to data published by Eurostat. According to the EU office, the number of employed people increased in the fourth quarter by 0.5% in the Eurozone and in the European Union…
At the end of the first half of 2021, world GDP had already recovered end-2019 levels – after a decline of 3.5% in 2020 – thanks to the strong growth of the Chinese and US economies, according to calculations made in May by the OECD. Analysts at Oxford Economics agree in their calculations, which also talk about a GDP of 100.1% of 2019 in June 2021 and of a global…
Monex Europe | Today’s announcement by the European Central Bank can be perceived as net dovish in the short-term by markets, as the shift from an asymmetric target to a new symmetric 2% inflation target gives the central bank ample room to run accommodative monetary policy for longer without having to fight markets. Previously, the ECB’s inflation target was set at “below, but close to 2%”, which contributed to the eurozone’s structural issues with low inflation for years. By changing this target to a symmetric target, which means any undershoots and overshoots would be equally undesirable, the central bank moves the bar slightly upwards for inflation before policy is required to tighten.
At first glance, the “scar” on total employment looks set to be less deep than after the 2008 financial crisis. However, at the sectorial level, the shock may turn out to be deeper or longer lasting. One example is tourism, one of the sectors most affected by the pandemic and one of the most labour-intensive. These sectorial divergences may have consequences for the pace of recovery in European countries depending on their degree of exposure to tourism.
Bruno Cavalier (Oddo BHF) | There are two types of central banks in the world. On the one hand, those who believe that the recent rate hike is widely justified. This is the case for the Fed, at least so far. On the other hand, those who think the opposite. This is the case of the ECB, which is exasperated to see European rates rising, not as a sign of a solid recovery, but because of the contagion of the US bond correction.
The number of employed in the Eurozone in the fourth quarter of 2020 reached 157.9 million. This represents a loss of 3.1 million jobs compared to the same period in 2019, before the impact of the pandemic, the EU statistics office Eurostat has reported. In the European Union as a whole, the number of employed people in the fourth quarter of 2020 was 206 million, a figure 3.5 million lower than in the same quarter of 2019.
According to an article by the Bloomberg agency, European bond investors want the European Central Bank to bring together all the sovereign debt earmarked for the markets in 2021. Additionally, the European Union is also prepared to be the main issuer to finance the stimulus plan funded by jointly issued debt.
The positive trend in the euro area trade balance increased in October by 10.3% year-on-year, reaching 30 billion euros, according to data on international trade in goods published by Eurostat. By items, exports of goods from the euro area to the rest of the world contracted by 9%, to 199.3 billion euros. The fall was offset by a sharper decline in exports, which fell by 11.7%, to 169.3 billion euros. Commercial activity amongst the euro members fell by 6.8% in the tenth month of the year, to 166.1 billion euros.