Since early 2018, based on the purchasing manager indices, a large number of countries have witnessed a decline in the assessment of new export orders which was bigger than the decline of the general climate in manufacturing. This suggests a dominance of foreign demand shocks, rather than domestic shocks, in explaining slower overall growth. The drop in new export orders echoes the significant slowdown in world trade growth. This is probably related to slower Chinese growth and, in many countries, slower growth in capital expenditures, which have a higher import content than consumption. Trade-related uncertainty may also play a role.
During the last quarter of 2018, the annual growth of loans to private non-financial sector in the euro area stabilized at around 3.3%. However, survey data have showed a lower increase in the net demand of both households and enterprises since the beginning of 2018. Furthermore, and unlike in 2018, banks no longer plan to ease their conditions in 2019 Q1. In addition to the economic slowdown, these factors could weigh on the developments of loans outstanding in the euro area during the next quarters
