08 December 2014
Posted in sentix Economic News

For the euro-area economy investors' 6-month expectations rise in December as strongly as only twice before in the history of the sentix Economic Index. Only in August 2005, ahead of German elections, and in February 2012, when the ECB was about to launch its second LTRO, more pronounced increases could be observed. Also, the assessment of the current situation improves which makes the composite index go up by 9.4 to now -2.5 points. With that, the sentix Economy Clock now points to an upswing for the euro zone!
For the remaining regions and countries the composite indices rise, too. The only exception is Japan. That the euro zone stands out so clearly this month should be due to the expectation that the ECB will start a large-scale as-set-buying programme soon. In addition, the weak euro and the fallen price of oil are obviously perceived as economic boosters. And the low oil price does have positive effects not only in the euro zone!

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09 November 2014
Posted in sentix Economic News

Since August there was a strong downtrend of the economic expectations for all of the important economies. This trend is stopped now. The latest announcements by the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank (ECB) let investors' 6-month-expectations rise again visibly. This is rather remarkable as it recently looked as if the ECB would have lost its power to turn economic expectations round. But also for the US – where the central bank is on a different path – the composite index improves significantly. All in all, fears of a free fall of the world econ-omy are banned for the moment. Nevertheless, it remains unclear if the current month's rise in economic expectations is just a one-off or a more important turn to the positive. The sentix data justify cautious optimism, but not more than that.

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05 October 2014
Posted in sentix Economic News

In October, the composite index for the euro zone falls for the third time in a row. As both the assessment of the current situation and the 6-month expectations are now clearly in negative territory, the sentix indices signal shrinking output for the euro area. And there are no positive news coming from the indicators for the other coun-tries or regions either: all composite indices recede this month! Even for the US and Asia ex Japan – both stood out until recently with rather solid indices – the economic shine fades. It is mainly investors' 6-month expecta-tions that worsen. All in all, the data points to a nearing downturn of the world economy.

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08 September 2014
Posted in sentix Economic News

Despite the new measures taken by the European Central Bank (ECB) last Thursday the composite index for the euro zone collapses. It falls from +2.7 to now only -9.8 points. As both, the assessment of the current situation and investors' 6-month expectations, now have reached negative territory, the indicator signals a new recession for the euro area! This is all the more noteworthy as during Mario Draghi's presidency the ECB has managed on several occasions to turn round investors' economic expectations. Now, this does not seem to work anymore. In this context it is interesting to know that 6-month expectations of the global aggregate have fallen to their lowest level since November 2012, the time when Japan started its "Abenomics" and managed to influence investors' expectations positively. But obviously central banks have currently – against the backdrop of a number of geopolitical conflicts – lost their power to steer investors' economic expectations.

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