Another day, another dose of bad news from the euro-zone. Spain reported that its economy contracted by 0.3% in Q3, and 1.6% year over year. While this was somewhat better than -0.4% that was expected, it still is a fourth consecutive quarter of contraction, or a fifth that doesn’t see growth.
Germany disappointed once again with a rise of 20K in the number of unemployed people – double the early expectations. The unemployment rate in Germany stands at 6.9%. Last month’s figure was revised from 6.8% to 6.9%. The German economy is still doing very well, but it isn’t immune.
Spain also reported an inflation rate of 3.5%, a bit higher than expected and not encouraging at all, making the misery even worse.
In addition, Markit’s Retail PMI for the euro-zone also slid: from 47.1 to 45.3 points – well within the contraction zone of under 50 points.
The main issue in the euro-zone this week comes from a different country, and news aren’t better there either: Greece and the troika of international creditors are not making progress in negotiations.
EUR/USD is now trading at 1.2930, in the middle of the 1.29-1.2960 range.
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