US - Europe growth gap
In our prior publication, we highlighted the gap between European and US data, with the former surprising to the downside compared to the latter. This difference in growth has increased in favor of the US. Most eye-catching last week has been the weakness in German manufacturing and services data. The German Purchasing Manager Index (PMI) is now 11.2 points in contraction territory. According to the PMI press release, “The sharp decrease in demand for goods and services reflected a range of factors, including customer hesitancy, destocking, high inflation and rising interest rates” and “there is an increased probability that the economy will be in...