The Euro Area GDP grew by only 0.2% during the second quarter of 2011; this slow paced growth is mainly due to the disappointing growth rate of Germany’s GDP by only 0.1% during the second quarter 2011.
During the first quarter of 2011, Euro Area’s GDP grew by 0.8%; Germany’s GDP inclined by 1.3%.
This economic slowdown took analysts by surprise as the market expected a much higher growth rate for both Germany – the strongest economy among the Euro Area countries, and Euro Area.
Other major economies also didn’t present encouraging figures with the GDP of the US grew by 0.3%, and GDP of Japan fell by 0.3% during the second quarter of 2011.
This news is likely to depreciate the Euro against the US dollar and other major currencies. Furthermore, it’s also likely to pull energy commodities prices such as crude oil prices down, as this slowdown might also project to a revised (downward) economic outlook on the Euro Area.
Euros to USD is currently traded down at 1.4400 a 0.3098% decrease as of 10:18*.
Current Nymex crude oil price, short term futures (September 2011 delivery) is traded down by 1.33%, at $86.71 per barrel as of 09:47*.
Current gold price, short term futures (September 2011 delivery) is traded at $1,782.00 per t oz. a $24 increase or 1.37%, as of 10:09*.
(* GMT)
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Lior Cohen, M.A. commodities analyst and blogger at Trading NRG.