Europe: Economic conditions improving - Rabobank

The European economy continues to surprise as the first estimate saw third quarter growth at 0.6% q-o-q, while the Q2 estimate was revised up to 0.7% q-o-q, points out the research team at Rabobank.

Key Quotes

“This pace of expansion was higher than expectations, including our own. Insofar as data is currently available, these continue to point to domestic demand as the main driver of economic growth.”

“Going forward, the higher-than-expected growth does not change our view of strong yet slightly diminishing economic momentum. Mainly as result of somewhat slower employment growth and pent-up demand, consumption is set to slow a bit in 2018. That said, due to the higher than expected numbers for Q2-Q3, we are likely to ‘mechanically’ revise our growth outlook for 2017 from 2.1% to 2.3%, and possibly from 2.0% to 2.1% for 2018.”