Euro was able to continue its gains this morning against the US dollar despite the mixed data, and recorded an increase of 0.11% at approximately 7:10 GMT, thus reaching the level of 1.07675, which is the highest since Monday.
However, at the same time, it remained stable against the British pound near the 0.85380 level.
The euro’s gains came despite a larger-than-expected contraction in industrial production output in Germany on a monthly basis, in contrast to easing contraction on an annual basis and noticeable growth in the output of industries outside the energy sector.
Meanwhile, the euro’s movements against the pound sterling come with more positive real estate market data, as the pace of house price growth in the United Kingdom accelerates.
In detail, industrial production in Germany recorded a contraction at the fastest pace since last March, by 1.6% on a monthly basis last December, which was far from expectations, and by 3.13%, which represents the slowest pace since last September, according to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis).
As for the year 2023, industrial production declined by 1.5% compared to 2022, led by a contraction in energy sector outputs by 15%.
While the greatest pressure was on industries that rely heavily on energy and electricity generation outputs, in addition to a noticeable decline in the chemical and construction industries.
On the other hand, December recorded a growth in industrial production, excluding the energy and construction industries, by 1.5% on a monthly basis, in addition to a noticeable growth in the production of capital and intermediate goods and automotive.
As for the United Kingdom, house price growth accelerated to the highest level since June of 2022 to 1.3% in December on a monthly basis, which exceeded expectations, in addition to growing at the fastest pace since November of 2022, at a rate of 2.5% on an annual basis, according to For the Halifax House Price Index.
Today’s real estate market numbers in the UK today come as a continuation of a series of data that indicates the cohesion of this market, specifically the housing market, despite the difficult credit and economic conditions, which in turn may encourage monetary policy makers to adhere to their tight stance towards not cutting interest rate any time soon.
Yesterday we also witnessed the slowest contraction in construction activities in the United Kingdom in four months, with the January reading of the construction PMI, which was also better than expectations.
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