Q4 2017 GDP disappointed when it didn’t do that, and then last week Eurostat reported Real GDP only gained a paltry 0.42% in Q1 2018. It was more like the bad days of the last downturn and nothing like Juncker’s bravado, a gut punch to markets perhaps growing a little too fond of the confidence.
Is it any wonder, then, that the euro has started to turn so decisively? Where the promise of globally synchronized growth was perhaps the most realistic (which still wasn’t all that much), the disappointment of 2018 can’t be overstated in analyzing risk perceptions where they matter most – balance sheet capacity.
