Matthew Lynn Matthew Lynn

The eurozone is in deep trouble

(Photo: Getty)

In Germany, the DAX index – the benchmark for the economy – is already down 4 per cent today. In France, the benchmark CAC-40 is down by 3.3 per cent – heading toward the low points seen in the spring. Across Europe a stock-market crash is starting to unfold.

Is it a panic? An overreaction of edgy traders? Not really. The reality is that the markets have noticed something that not many people have yet picked up on: that the Eurozone is at the epicentre of the second wave of Covid-19 – and the economic damage this creates is going to be a lot worse than it was in the spring.

Europe is at the epicentre of the second wave, and winter has only just started

We may think, admittedly with some justification, that the virus is bad in the UK, and the political response chaotic. But it is now far worse on the other side of the channel. In France, with more than 50,000 infections a day, Covid-19 is completely out of control and president Macron is expected to announce a return to some form of national lockdown tonight. In Germany, which largely escaped the first wave, infections are hitting daily records, and the chancellor Angela Merkel is today closing down bars and restaurants. Spain has already been hit hard, and now so has Italy. And central Europe, which like Germany escaped in the spring, is now just as bad: Covid-19 is rampant in Poland and the Czech Republic. Europe is at the epicentre of the second wave, and winter has only just started.

The economic toll from this is going to be heavy. There are three big reasons why the impact on output and employment will be terrifying. First, Germany is the locomotive of the eurozone, and while it sailed through the spring with low levels of infection and only mild restrictions, it is now heading into a full-scale lockdown.

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Matthew Lynn
Written by
Matthew Lynn
Matthew Lynn is a financial columnist and author of ‘Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis’ and ‘The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031’

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