Excel Currencies Blog

Germany dragging the Euro-Zone down as Italy & Spain robust..

Underwhelming figures out of Germany this morning has meant the Euro-Zone hasn't grown to where economists expected this quarter. A 0% growth figure from the Germans was a surprise, who barely escaped a technical recession after a poor Q4 number. It means the Bloc grew just 0.1% in Q1..

Clearly Germany has been affected most by the higher energy prices and global tensions due to their manufacturing prowess, but this will change for them in the upcoming quarters. Whilst both headlines are disappointing, they are nowhere near as bad as what everyone had forecast (the exact same scenario as the UK).

A crunching recession was expected for the Euro-Zone, that hasn't and very likely, won't arrive. The major problem with the Bloc and predicting its future, is the sheer number of countries that are involved. In growth terms for example, Ireland posted a -2.7% number today, but on the other side of the coin Portugal came in at +1.6%.

April has once again proved to be a strong month for the Pound overall across the board. £-$ is 2% up on the years average with £-€ up by 0.5% after a bumpy couple of weeks..