According to France's INSEE official statistics agency, the French economy will contract by 20 percent in the second quarter, which would mean that the economy would have a sharper fall compared with the first quarter's when the economy contracted 5.8 percent.
The INSEE expects the French economy to contract as much as 8 percent this year, due to the pernicious effects of the coronavirus epidemic on the country's economic performance. This is concerning since they assume this scenario will become true only if the economy comes back to its pre-crisis levels by July.
At the moment, the French economy is running at 21 percent below its usual levels due to the quarantine that was implemented to stop the spread of the virus, after being down 33 percent at the beginning of May. At the moment there are 182,722 infected individuals in France and a death toll of 28,530, turning France in the fifth more affected country in Europe.
Meanwhile, Germany's IFO Institute claimed that the employment outlook improved in May, despite German companies expecting their hiring to shrink. IFO's employment barometer rose from 86.3 points in April to 88.3 points this month. Among all the sectors, the manufacturing sector reported the biggest losses in employment.
ECB's Schnabel: German Court Ruling Doesn't Affect The ECB
The European Central Bank's executive board member, Isabel Schnabel said that Germany's top constitutional court ruling against the bank's bond purchasing program won't make the ECB adjust its monetary policy and won't lead the Bundesbank out of the scheme.
“We are not adjusting our monetary policy in any way in response to this ruling,” said Schnabel during an interview with the Financial Times.
Schnabel mentioned that the bank has to avoid a situation where a national central bank cannot participate in the ECB's bond purchase program, adding that most likely the ECB will have to communicate with the Bundesbank and the German government to find a solution to their disagreements.
“We have to avoid a situation in which one national central bank cannot participate in our asset purchase programs,” she continued. “I’m sure there is going to be communication between the Bundesbank and the German parliament and the German government, and one will have to find a solution,” she added.
By 7:28 GMT the Euro advanced 0.13 percent against the Pound Sterling, hitting the 0.8913 level. In the same way, it advanced 0.08 percent against the Swiss Franch, hitting the 1.0609 level. On the other hand, it fell 0.20 percent against the US dollar, falling to the 1.0958 level, conversely, it fell 0.22 percent against the Japanese Yen, falling to the 117.80 level.