The Eurozone economy started the year on a strong footing. Growth of 0.6% q/q in Q1 allays some fears that the economy is already being hit significantly by the global trade war and ensuing uncertainty. Low unemployment, increased purchasing power, improved financing conditions and (on balance) healthy household financial positions continued to support private domestic spending. But, the acceleration in growth was also strongly, or even mostly, driven by frontloaded production and exports to the US – case in point being a quadrupling of Irish sales to the US in March and an unprecedented 20% monthly increase in ... (full story)