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Eurozone: Mixed feelings
After a robust 2017, growth has somewhat slowed since the beginning of the year. While the first quarter has been affected by a number of one-off effects and underlying fundamentals remain supportive, we still feel that peak growth is now behind us. At the same time, core inflation has unexpectedly fallen back to only 0.7%, which increases the probability that monetary policy will stay loose for longer. First quarter GDP growth came in at 0.4% quarter-on-quarter, a clear deceleration from the 0.7% pace seen in the last quarter of 2017. There have certainly been one-off effects dragging down growth. An unusual cold ... (full story)