This morning we have seen German inflation levels cooled down for its first time in 2024, being unchanged from March to April at 2.2%. After 3 consecutive months of drop in inflation for the European country, it has now flatlined. Inflation is not the issue for Germany and other European countries, what has been and continues to be the concern is lack of economic growth.
Recent economic figures would suggest that ECB are in a good place to start quantitative easing. Therefor it will be of interest to hear what is mention in this afternoon speech from ECB member Schnabel.
This morning we can see that UK unemployment rose from 4.2% to 4.3% in March. In the last three month period we could also see that employment change fell, suggesting that the UK market is struggling with creation of additional job opportunities. There has not been to much reaction of markets after this release and one factor that dampening market response, is that average earnings held its levels unchanged from February into March.
Suggesting that there is more of disposable income for employees. Forecasted to fall in March, this suggest that household have more income to spend and can remain healthy GDP figures moving forward.
