Bundesbank: German Q2 economic activity significantly below that of Q1

Comments by the German central bank in its monthly report

  • Sees momentum picking up later in Q2 as lockdown is lifted
  • Construction sector to be more robust than the rest of the economy
  • Fiscal support plan should be targeted, temporary
  • Some 6 million workers in state wage support during the month of April

A couple of token remarks from the Bundesbank with the headline pretty much reaffirming what we all already know about the German – and Eurozone for that matter – economy.

Later this week we will be getting the May preliminary PMI reports from the euro area and they should reflect a decent improvement relative to the historically low figures from April.
But even then, just take note that the bounce in PMI will not reflect the true loss of economic activity since PMI survey sentiment is largely based off one question i.e. how are business conditions compared to last month?
In that sense, the economic situation in May is certainly better than in April as lockdown measures are slowly being eased but it is definitely still way off pre-virus levels.