Tuesday brought Eurozone, German, French and Italian Industrial Production data. In March 2016, production in industry was down by 1.3% from the previous month on a price, seasonally and working day adjusted basis. Smaller decrease by 0.6% was forecasted. In February 2016, the corrected figure shows a decreased of 0.7% (primary –0.5%) from January 2016. In March 2016, production in industry excluding energy and construction was down by 1.2%. Within industry, the production of capital goods decreased by 1.4%.

 

French output decreased sharply again in March in the manufacturing industry (-0.9% after -1.4% in February), and more moderately in the whole industry (-0.3% after -1.3%), missing forecasts on 0.6% incline. On the other hand, Italian industrial production index was unchanged compared with the previous month. Analysts were predicting 0.3% increase. The percentage change of the average of the last three months with respect to the previous three months was +0.7.

 

Thursday was marked by Eurozone Industrial Production data. Compared with February 2016, seasonally adjusted industrial production fell by 0.8% in the euro area (EA19) and by 0.5% in the EU28, according to estimates from Eurostat. Analysts were predicting 0.1% increase.The decrease of 0.8% in industrial production in the euro area in March 2016, compared with February 2016, is due to production of non-durable consumer goods falling by 1.9%, capital goods by 1.1%, intermediate goods by 0.8% and durable consumer goods by 0.4%, while production of energy rose by 2.0%.

 

Friday brought Eurozone and German GDP data. Seasonally adjusted GDP rose by 0.5% in both the euro area (EA19) and the EU28 during the first quarter of 2016, compared with the previous quarter, according to a flash estimate published by Eurostat. In the fourth 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 1.7% in the EU28 in the first quarter of 2016, after +1.6% and +1.8% respectively in the previous quarter.

 

The German economy gained pace at the start of this year. In the first quarter of 2016, the gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.7% on the fourth quarter of 2015 after adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations. The moderate growth path of last year (+0.3% in the last quarter of 2015) thus accelerated, reports the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis).The quarter-on-quarter comparison shows that positive contributions mainly came from domestic demand, according to provisional calculations.

 

This week markets will be looking at:

 

Trade Balance (Tuesday 11:00)
Final CPI (Wednesday 11:00)