Overall an interestingly +ve picture of the EU economic growth. But as they say the devil is in the detail, so we are here to help you know your EU markets and sectors. The story remains coherent with eastern and northern European economic growth well established and continuing, but the southern countries such as Greece, Italy, France and Spain (to be watched as the next turn-around case study) remain stubbornly at zero or worse. There are many excellent organizations that track EU GDP numbers, nevertheless our recommended source is probably the EU Commission itself, from which there are many links if you need more: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home
Also, I really like Markit’s two excellent monthly EU Purchase Managers Index’s (PMI). We have the Eurozone Retail Index, noteworthy is that at 56 points Germany hits a 41 month high, but these gains are offset by further recession in France with 48 and Italy at 44, giving us an EU average of 50. Then there is the excellent European Sector PMI, covering 22 sectors that demonstrated “broad based growth of output…”, led by the Technology Equipment, Transportation, Healthcare Services, Real Estate, Software & Services and Media. It you want to know more, we provide a link to Markit’s source material: http://www.markiteconomics.com/Public/Page.mvc/PressReleases
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