Finalized inflation figures and trade data for the Eurozone were in focus through the early part of the European session.
Trade
In June, the Eurozone’s trade surplus narrowed from €10.9bn to €7.5bn. Economists had forecast a widening to €16.4bn.
According to Eurostat,
- Exports to the rest of the world increased by 31.9% to €188.2bn year-on-year.
- Imports from the rest of the world jumped by 35.2% to €180.7bn, year-on-year.
- Intra-euro areas trade rose by 45.4% to €181.5bn when compared with May 2020.
- When compared with January-May 2020, euro area exports climbed by 13.3% to €957.9bn in the period January-May 2021.
- Imports rose by 12.7% to €878.2bn in January-May 2021, when compared with the same period in 2020.
- As a result, the trade surplus widened from €66.1bn to €79.7bn in the period January to May 2021, when compared with the same period in 2020.
- Intra-euro area trade increased by 20.5% to €867.6bn in January-May 2021 compared with the same period in 2020.
Inflation
In June, the Eurozone’s annual rate of inflation softened from 2.0% to 1.9%, falling below the ECB’s new 2% target rate.
The core annual rate of inflation softened from 1.0% to 0.9%.
According to Eurostat,
- A year earlier, the annual rate of inflation had stood at just 0.3%.
- Portugal (-0.6%), Malta (+0.2%), and Greece (+0.6%) registered the lowest annual rates of inflation.
- By contrast, Estonia (+3.7%) recorded the highest annual rate of inflation.
- In June, the highest contribution to inflation came from energy prices (+1.16 percentage points).
- Non-energy industrial goods (+0.31 pp), services (+0.28 pp), and food, alcohol, & tobacco (+0.15 pp) also contributed.
Market Impact
Ahead of today’s inflation figures, the EUR had fallen to a pre-stat and current day low $1.17971 before rising to a pre-stat and current day high $1.18197.
In response to today’s stats, the EUR rose to a post-stat high $1.18184 before falling to post-stat low $1.18136.
At the time of writing, the EUR was up by 0.05% to $1.18178.
Next Up
Retail sales and consumer sentiment figures are due out from the U.S. While both sets of numbers will draw interest, expect the retail sales figures to be key.