This is the first downturn reported by Bulgaria on monthly basis since September 2015, when it dropped by 0.8%.On annual basis, Bulgaria’s industrial production has increase by 3.0% (compared with March 2015), after a 2.7% growth in February and 2.2% growth in the beginning of the year. Though growth was lower than anticipated, the eurozone performed way better than the USA, which according to Eurostat only expanded by a quarterly 0.1 percent during the same period.
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Eurozone economy expanded less than initially estimated in the first quarter but it was the fastest growth in a year. It also follows a big 1.2 percent decline in February.
European statistics agency Eurostat said the single currency union’s economy grew 0.5 per cent in the first three months of 2016, representing a downward revision from its initial estimate of 0.6 per cent. Greece’s economy contracted by a quarterly rate of 0.4 percent. German GDP figures for the first quarter delivered a pleasant surprise, but as tends to happen with European macro data, markets largely dismissed the data as a bit of a one-off. Even Italy managed to grow 0.3 percent. And France expanded at a healthy tick of 0.5 percent. Both growth figures were kept unchanged from the previous estimates.
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Jonathan Loynes, an economist at Capital Economics, expects Eurozone GDP growth of a pretty meager 1.2 percent or so this year, well below the rate needed to push inflation back up to the ECB’s target on a sustained basis. Markit’s monthly PMI numbers for the United Kingdom showed that manufacturing shrunk for the first time in three years in April, with Markit economists saying that there is a “deep unease” in the sector.
