The GDP figures for the second quarter painted a historically bleak picture. The eurozone economy contracted by 11.8% (figure 1), which is an unprecedented collapse in peacetime. But now that economies have opened up again, we expect the figures for the third quarter to be good in historical terms. Nonetheless, it would be naïve to expect GDP to return to pre-COVID levels by the end of this quarter. The economic data that have been released so far do indeed indicate a strong recovery in the third quarter, but more recent sentiment figures suggest that the pace of economic recovery will slow. PMI figures are still s ... (full story)