The worst in retail sales should be behind us. A recovery of private consumption is in the cards this year.

A recovery of private consumption is on the cards this year.

The recent weak data should remind us that the exceptional gains in business confidence and new export orders may be overly optimistic.

The current economic situation should improve the overall labor market situation in the course of the year. However, the creation of new jobs will fall short of the dynamic in business investment.

It’s quite likely that we have now seen the peak in the current business sentiment cycle.

One should not translate the increase one-on-one into future hard data.

We see risks of a decline in fourth quarter GDP and are expecting a flat reading.