23/3/2018/Fitch Ratings

Eurozone business sentiment indicators have softened slightly in the first quarter of the year, suggesting that eurozone GDP growth rates may be close to peaking. Headline PMI balances slowed to a 12-month low in France and an eight-month low in Germany in March. However, confidence levels remain high and the details within the overall PMI indices remain upbeat and consistent with continued strong expansion in the eurozone. These are some of the recent trends highlighted in Fitch Ratings’ latest “20/20 Vision” chart pack.

A combination of factors including the stronger euro, bad weather, the threat of protectionism and the maturing eurozone growth cycle are likely to have contributed to the slight downturn in confidence. Softer sentiment figures are not likely to stop the ECB from its objective of gradual policy normalisation.

Fitch’s bi-monthly 20/20 Vision chart pack covers 20 major economies and 20 economic variables that are the focus of Fitch’s economics team’s global macro analysis and plots five years of high frequency economic data with consistent coverage across each country.