Frankfurt — It’s looking good for the euro area right now and there’s every chance that’s how it will stay. Germany, the region’s largest economy, started the week off with a surge in business confidence, while Tuesday saw French manufacturing sentiment rise to a six-year high. With a damaging outcome in that country’s presidential elections seen as largely out of the way, the region’s top-two economies might have just the environment they need to fully blossom. While politics has dominated much of the year so far, improving numbers in the background point to an upturn in euro-region momentum. It is something that policy makers at the European Central Bank (ECB) have had to acknowledge, although they have avoided getting carried away for fear of the signal it might send about stimulus. Now, with nationalist, anti-euro candidate Marine le Pen predicted to lose to centrist Emmanuel Macron in a run-off on May 7, ECB officials might feel more comfortable signalling at least a minor shif...
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