UK: PMI Construction contraction slows down slightly in March

TD Securities analysts said that the ECB’s dilemma is that the underlying premise of their policy is being questioned, as growth in the first half of 2013 has been a write-off as expected. “In fact, Eurozone hard data (IP, retail sales, international trade, etc.) published since mid-November has trended no better than in-line with expectations. The upside surprises we saw last autumn, as financial conditions improved, failed to be either as strong or as long as would be normal for the improvement in financial conditions that we saw”, wrote analyst Richard Kelly, adding that the ECB’s transmission mechanism was broken and it seems to have leaked out of the system.