EME Macro/Strategy: macro all-in-one

Here, we launch our weekly macro report, with the aim of creating a platform where all our core short- and long-term views on our key markets, as well as the newsflow for our smaller and new markets, like Iceland, CIS and the Middle East, can be found easily.
The economic data in central Europe, Greece and the Eurozone, on average, are unfolding as we anticipated: the labour markets are remaining tight and economic activity, although slower than last year, is showing pockets of improvement. In March, we picked up a worrying signal in the German real estate market, which strengthens, in our view, the case for a halting of the tightening cycle in the Eurozone, especially given that inflation indicators are slowly, but truly, improving. That said, we see the improved sentiment in the equity markets in the past week or so as exaggerated, given that corporate profitability is worsening this year and the financial markets are yet to fully digest what is likely to be a further tightening of monetary policies in the UK, Switzerland and Japan over the course of the year.