Germany just proved everyone wrong as growth surges upwards
REUTERS/Michaela Rehle
Here's how the scorecard looks so far:
- Germany's growth hit 0.7% in the final quarter, bringing overall growth for the year to 1.6%. (Only 0.3% growth in the final quarter was expected by analysts who also called for only 1% growth for the year.
- French growth was more disappointing. It came in as analysts expected, with a 0.1% increase in the fourth quarter, raising growth in 2014 to just 0.4%
- We've already had Spain's GDP, which rose 2% year-on-year and 0.7% for the quarter, matching Germany.
Basically, the German economy surged upward in the final quarter of 2014. That 0.7% figure is very strong figure for the eurozone. It was almost twice as strong as economists were expecting.
We've already had some good economic news from Spain in the past month. Business surveys are strong and Spanish retail sales were the strongest in 11 years.
Probably most importantly, private lending is back in positive territory across the eurozone for the first time in two and a half years, which should give the economy a boost.
Let's put it in perspective. Things are not amazing. Unemployment across Europe is still above 11%, rising to above 20% in a significant portion of southern Europe. Few countries are back to their 2008 GDP levels.
But what we're talking about here is the direction of travel, not overall levels. The eurozone now has a bigger-than-expected QE programme to support growth, and it looks like there's a bit of an upswing already (QE starts in March). One of the big mistakes people made when the US and UK economies started to recovery was being over-pessimistic, after years of gloominess. Don't miss the early signs of an upturn.
Here's how German growth looks over the past few years. Can the current spike in momentum continue?
Pantheon Macroeconomics
- Colon cancer rates are rising in young people. If you have two symptoms you should get a colonoscopy, a GI oncologist says.
- I spent $2,000 for 7 nights in a 179-square-foot room on one of the world's largest cruise ships. Take a look inside my cabin.
- An Ambani disruption in OTT: At just ₹1 per day, you can now enjoy ad-free content on JioCinema
- In second consecutive week of decline, forex kitty drops $2.28 bn to $640.33 bn
- SBI Life Q4 profit rises 4% to ₹811 crore
- IMD predicts severe heatwave conditions over East, South Peninsular India for next five days
- COVID lockdown-related school disruptions will continue to worsen students’ exam results into the 2030s: study
- India legend Yuvraj Singh named ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 ambassador
- JNK India IPO allotment date
- JioCinema New Plans
- Realme Narzo 70 Launched
- Apple Let Loose event
- Elon Musk Apology
- RIL cash flows
- Charlie Munger
- Feedbank IPO allotment
- Tata IPO allotment
- Most generous retirement plans
- Broadcom lays off
- Cibil Score vs Cibil Report
- Birla and Bajaj in top Richest
- Nestle Sept 2023 report
- India Equity Market