The spectre of deflation loomed large during the period under review (May 5 -19) overshadowing other economic variables, which in any case did not offer much cause for optimism.
In the EuroZone, the big economies continued to struggle with recession and the difficulties involved in balancing their budgets. Germany again delivered the bleakest results where unemployment rose sharply to 10.7 %. German GNP shrank by almost 1.0 % in the first quarter while consumer spending fell 4%. An official report meanwhile saw tax revenues falling by Eur130 billion over the next three years. Even if nobody wants to talk about it, one cannot ignore the obvious parallels between the current state of the German economy and that of its Japanese counterpart in the 1990s. One has to wonder how the decline will ever be reversed.
