Companies still aren't hiring, and until they do, it's hard to see strong consumer spending. |
Consumers are still the weakest element within the recovery. European companies are still reluctant to hire, and it will take a long period of recovery before they start to do so. |
The manufacturing sector is benefiting from strong global growth and investment. That's particularly true in Germany, which tends to specialize in high quality capital goods. |
We should see some small increases in retail sales over coming months, but without a decent pickup in the labor market and incomes, we won't see much of an improvement. |
We've started to see a gradual improvement in the labor market, and that will slowly feed through to consumer spending and boost services more widely. |