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  • Germany’s ifo Institute warns economy is “falling into crisis”
  • Jump in US durable goods orders aid dollar’s recovery

Worries are mounting about Europe’s largest economy after the President of the ifo Institute, Clemens Fuest, warned that Germany is “increasingly falling into crisis” in the latest monthly survey report. The ifo business climate index in August fell to the lowest since February, although the reading of 86.6 was slightly above forecasts of 86.0.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Fuest said the Germany economy needs expansionary fiscal and loose monetary policy to boost both consumption and investment.

German manufacturers have been struggling since 2022 when energy prices spiked and China’s own economic woes started to get worse, hurting exports.

In contrast, the US just reported an impressive 9.9% m/m surge in durable goods orders in July, denting expectations for a 50-bps rate cut by the Fed in September.

Euro/dollar is sharply down today in response, paring some of Friday’s strong gains in what is only a minor setback for the pair’s uptrend for now. The next focus is tomorrow’s detailed Q2 GDP numbers out of Germany, to be followed by inflation data out of both the Eurozone and the US on Friday.