The economic data from the Eurozone has shown some considerable weakness during this year. The European Central Bank has been holding a positive outlook throughout the year, expecting the economy to rebound, first from the weakness in Q1, then they said that the Eurozone economy would rebound from the weakness in Q2, but the numbers from Q3 have been even worse, so it seems that the Eurozone economy has only been getting weaker.

The ECB finally accepted the reality and they lowered expectations for the coming months. At least, the manufacturing reports from the Eurozone this morning showed a slight turnaround from the slowing trend of the last couple of quarters. Let’s see the numbers:

——————————————–Actual–Expected –Previous

German Final Manufacturing ———51.8 —- 51.6———51.6

French Final Manufacturing ———–50.8—–50.7———50.7

Italian Final Manufacturing ———–48.6—–48.9——- 49.2

Eurozone Final Manufacturing ——-51.8—–51.8——– 51.5

The actual numbers from Germany, France and the Eurozone are all green, meaning that the manufacturing production has increased, although there is a catch here, because the previous numbers come from the flash manufacturing reading from a week ago and not from the final manufacturing of the previous month.

If you compare the final manufacturing of October and today’s final manufacturing numbers which show the sector in November, then the trend is still declining. So, even this report is not that good. But at least, it is a good sign.

Then comes Italy. Everything is going horribly wrong for Italy. Italian politicians are trying to push the 2019 budget through the European Commission but the economic data is just not helping their cause. Manufacturing continues to trend lower in Italy like most of the other sectors, so things are just getting from bad to worse there.