Falling behind on vaccines, stimulus

While European manufacturing output is recovering strongly, tougher coronavirus restrictions announced in France and Italy this week have underlined that a sustained and broad-based economic rebound is unlikely until the summer. Meanwhile, the German constitutional court has thrown another spanner in the works for policymakers by delaying ratification of the Next Generation EU programme. Next week, the focus will continue to be on the pandemic and the pace of vaccination. We will also look out for the minutes of the ECB’s last monetary policy meeting.