Data indicate eurozone’s easy-money regime may soon be phased out
London — If the latest surveys of business intentions are to be believed, the eurozone economy is sparkling, growing at a pace that easily explains the hints from some European Central Bank (ECB) policy makers of a pull-back from their easy-money regime. IHS Markit’s euro zone Flash composite purchasing managers index (PMI), an influential guide to the buying plans of businesses and hence growth, hit a near six-year high in March. It climbed to 56.7 from February’s 56.0, its highest reading since April 2011 and better than any predictions in a Reuters poll. At the same time, flash surveys for the currency bloc’s two largest economies — Germany and France — also stormed past expectations to register near six-year highs, conditions likely to play into elections in both countries in 2017. "This is a really solid rate of expansion. It’s an economy firing on all cylinders," Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit, said of the eurozone. He added that it implied first-quar...
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