Eurozone’s painfully slow recovery continues at half the speed analysts expected
Painful figures for the Eurozone.
The currency bloc has seen GDP growth of just 0.2 per cent in the first quarter of this year, according to estimates from Eurostat.
That's well below the 0.4 per cent economists had forecast.
Ishaq Siddiq, chief market strategist at ETX Capital, says that the figures are more "fuel to inject further stimulus" for the European Central Bank.
At its more recent press conference, ECB president Mario Draghi said that the central bank's governing council was "comfortable" with action at its next meeting, so everyone's expecting big things this June.
Where a Eurozone recovery is visible, it's still pretty concentrated. Germany continues to do well, the Netherlands, France, Italy, and Portugal, less so.
Continuing yesterday's run of economics and World Cup comparisons, Danske Bank Markets' Owen Callan notes that the GDP data and tournament chances of some Eurozone members look alarmingly similar:
Germany and Spain looking strong. France, Portugal and Netherlands look weak. Q1 GDP data or World Cup chances. Works for either.
— Owen Callan (@OwenCallan) May 15, 2014