It seems that things are coming back to normal in China, as they registered a factory activity expansion this month.
The country's Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) went up in March to 52 after hitting record lows of 35.7 on the previous month. This figure is above the analyst's expectations, who foresaw the PMI to be at 45 this month.
Despite this is good news for the already struggling Chinese economy, which used to be the most affected country and that only recently stopped being so when Italy took its place, it's still not clear if this means that the situation is coming back to what it used to be before the outbreak.
“This does not mean that output is now back to its pre-virus trend. Instead, it simply suggests that economic activity improved modestly relative to February’s dismal showing, but remains well below pre-virus levels,” explained an analyst at capital economics.
The spread of the epidemic to the rest of the world will probably affect the global demand levels, which would bring down china's second-quarter gross domestic product. Some analysts expect this year's gross domestic product to fall by 9 percent.
“The biggest problem facing China’s economy in the second quarter is the slumping foreign demand,” said an analyst at Hwabao Trust.
By 9:00 GMT the US dollar went down against the Chinese Yuan by 0.09 percent, falling to the 7.0924 level.
Eurozone's Inflation Slowed Down in March
According to data released by Eurostat, the Eurozone's consumers' price index was at 0.5 percent in March (month-to-month). Year-to-year data showed a significant slowdown, as it was at 0.7 percent in March, against February's 1.2 percent.
Core inflation figures were at 1.2 percent, slightly behind the previous month's figure which was at 1.3 percent.
“Looking at the main components of euro area inflation, food, alcohol & tobacco is expected to have the highest annual rate in March (2.4%, compared with 2.1% in February), followed by services (1.3%, compared with 1.6% in February), non-energy industrial goods (0.5%, stable compared with February) and energy (-4.3%, compared with -0.3% in February),” stated Eurostat on its report.
By 9:25 GMT the Euro went down by 0.53 percent against the US dollar, going down to the 1.0987 level. Conversely, it lost 0.05 percent against the Japanese Yen, falling to the 119.05 level. On the other hand, it remained almost steady against the Swiss Franc, gaining 0.01 percent, at 1.0588.