Events that marked the week:
Tuesday's session brought German Industrial Production and Trade Balance figures from Eurozone. In December 2015, production in industry in Germany was down 1.2% from the previous month on a price, seasonally and working day adjusted basis, thus missing forecasts on 0.2% increase. In November 2015, the corrected figure shows a decreased of 0.1% (primary –0.3%) from October 2015. In December 2015, production in industry excluding energy and construction was down by 1.1%. Within industry, the production of capital goods decreased by 2.6% and the production of consumer goods by 1.4%. The production of intermediate goods showed an increased 0.8% .Energy production fell by 3.0% in December 2015 and the production in construction decreased by 0.2%.
Separate report showed that Germany exported goods to the value of 1,195.8 billion euros and imported goods to the value of 948.0 billion euros in 2015. Based on provisional data, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that
German exports increased by 6.4% and imports by 4.2% in 2015 compared with 2014. In 2015, export and import levels were higher than the previous all-time highs recorded in 2014. That year, Germany exported goods to the value of 1,123.7 billion euros and imported goods to the value of 910.1 billion euros.
From Eurozone on Friday, German and Euro area GDP data was published. Seasonally adjusted GDP rose by 0.3% in both the euro area (EA19) and the EU28 during the fourth quarter of 2015, compared with the previous quarter, according to a flash estimate published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In the third quarter of 2015, GDP grew by 0.3% and 0.4% respectively. Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, seasonally adjusted GDP rose by 1.5% in the euro area and by 1.8% in the EU28 in the fourth quarter of 2015, after +1.6% and +1.9% respectively in the previous quarter.
Separate report showed that the German economy continued its moderate growth at the end of 2015. In the fourth quarter of 2015, the gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.3% on the previous quarter after adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations. The economic situation in Germany in 2015 was characterised by solid and steady growth (+0.3% in the third and fourth quarter each and +0.4% in each of the first two quarters). In a quarter-on-quarter comparison positive contributions were made by domestic demand again.
This week markets will be looking at:
ECB President Draghi Speaks (Monday 15:00)
German ZEW Economic Sentiment/ZEW Economic Sentiment (Tuesday 11:00)
