The Latest Victim Of Europe's Nasty Economic Malaise - Economic growth cartoon 10.20.215

Gone are the days of proclaiming a single ailing economy the "sick man of Europe." Across the Eurozone, countries are plagued by the same inexhaustible disease, #GrowthSlowing.

Don't expect that to change anytime soon. The latest news out of Spain simply confirms our thinking about lackluster European growth. Here's the update from our Macro team in a note sent to subscribers earlier today:

"Spain's Economy Minister Luis de Guindos lowered the country's 2016 GDP forecast to 2.7% versus 3.0% and the 2017 forecast to 2.4% versus 2.7%. This follows last week's reduced growth forecast by the IMF for Spain for the first time since 2013, to 2.6% from 2.7% for 2016. Yet the forecasts pale to our own, which according to our GIP (growth, inflation, policy) model, show the Spanish economy tracking into Quad 3 (equating to growth slowing as inflation accelerates) in the back half of the year with a mere 1.0% GDP forecast for 2016."

 

We expect things in Europe to get a lot nastier as this evolving reality continues to play out.