Events that marked the week:
From Eurozone, on Tuesday, ZEW Economic Sentiment figures were released. The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany has declined for the second consecutive time in February 2016. The index has decreased by 9.2 points compared to the previous month, now standing at 1.0 points (long-term average: 24.6 points). Analysts were anticipating decline to 0.1."The looming slowdown of the world economy and the uncertain consequences of the falling oil price put a strain on the ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment. In view of these developments, the concern over an increased credit default risk has already caused stock and bond prices for many banks in Europe, Japan and the US to slump," says Professor Sascha Steffen, head of the "International Finance and Financial Management" Research Department at ZEW.
The assessment of the current economic situation in Germany has also slightly deteriorated. Falling by 7.4 points, the index now stands at 52.3 points. Financial market experts’ sentiment concerning the economic development of the Eurozone has weakened.
ZEW's Indicator of Economic Sentiment for the Eurozone has decreased by 9.1 points to a reading of 13.6 points. Falling by 0.5 points in February 2016, the indicator for the current situation in the euro area has dropped to a value of minus 8.0 points.
From Eurozone, on Thursday, Current Account, data was released. The current account of the euro area recorded a surplus of €25.5 billion in December 2015. This reflected surpluses for goods (€26.5 billion), services (€4.6 billion) and primary income (€5.5 billion), which were partly offset by a deficit in secondary income (€11.2 billion). According to the preliminary results for 2015 as a whole, the current account recorded a surplus of €314.0 billion (3.0% of euro area GDP), compared with one of €245.6 billion (2.4% of euro area GDP) in 2014.
This week markets will be looking at:
French Flash Manufacturing PMI/French Flash Services PMI (Monday 9:00)
German Flash Manufacturing PMI/German Flash Services PMI (Monday 9:30)
German Ifo Business Climate (Tuesday 10:00)
M3 Money Supply (Thursday 10:00)
German Prelim CPI (Friday)
Spanish Prelim CPI (Friday 9:00)
