Euro Gains as GDP & ZEW Economic Sentiment Beat Expectations

The euro rose today on the back of better-than-expected macroeconomic releases in the eurozone. The shared 19-nation currency gained against all of its most-traded rivals, except for the New Zealand dollar, which was extremely strong during Tuesday’s trading.
Eurostat reported that seasonally adjusted eurozone gross domestic product fell by 0.6% in the fourth quarter of 2020. Economists were expecting a slightly bigger drop of 0.7%. The decrease followed a 12.7% surge in the third quarter and an 11.7% slump in the fourth quarter. Year-on-year, GDP decreased by 5.0%.
The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany jumped sharply from 61.8 in January to 71.2 in February. That is instead of falling to 59.7 as analysts had predicted. ZEW President Professor Achim Wambach commented on the positive result:

The financial market experts are optimistic about the future. They are confident that the German economy will be back on the growth track within the next six months. Consumption and retail trade in particular are expected to recover significantly, accompanied by higher inflation expectations.

ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment in the eurozone also climbed sharply, rising from 58.3 to 69.6, smashing the analysts’ median forecast of 59.2. On the negative side, the assessment of the current economic situation in both Germany and the whole eurozone remained deep in the negative territory, at -67.2 and -74.6 respectively.
EUR/USD rose from 1.2127 to 1.2166 as of 12:05 GMT today. EUR/GBP was down from 0.8723 to 0.8706 intraday but rebounded to 0.8735 later. Meanwhile, EUR/NZD fell from 1.6775 to 1.6751, though bounced from the session low of 1.6714.
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Original from: www.earnforex.com