Archives Jan. 1, 2020

The ruling by Karlsruhe Constitutional Court warning the European Central Bank to justify its decisions couldn’t come at a worst time. It risks adding to the unprecedented economic crisis generated by the corona virus outbreak and to the latent trade war between China and the U.S. the third risk of a financial crisis in Europe. Neither Europe nor the world needed such an initiative. Atop of the worries it is arousing, the fact that this highest Court is fighting in the same time against the ECB, the European Court of Justice and the European Union itself leads to ...

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INSEE has just published, along with its first estimation of the GDP evolution during the 1^st quarter, figures of household goods consumption in March and inflation in April. These figures are important because they allow making a first analysis of the economic agents reaction to the lockdown measures adopted since March 16^th. GDP has fallen by 5.8% compared to the previous quarter and household goods consumption by 17% compared to March 2019. Inflation, month on month, has been 0.1%, i.e. on one year 0.4%.

The GDP fall is especially alarming that it comes after ...

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The oil prices slump last week has given to the crisis resulting from the corona virus outbreak a new dimension. It has weighted on the financial markets which were starting to hope thanks to the reduction of the mortality rate and the announcement of the first measures about the end of lockdown. The quotation with a maturity date of the American petrol (measured by the WTI index) went even into negative territory and the Brent index, which is a representative one for the rest of the world, went below 20 dollars per barrel. It had fluctuated between 50 and 60 ...

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