Eurozone growth continues to prove resilient, notwithstanding the volatility of the Irish figures. The Q3 data reinforce our forecast of 1.1% growth this year, which could even be slightly exceeded, as German and Spanish momentum shows no sign of fading. In France, the negative surprise (-0.1% q/q against a consensus of +0.1% q/q) stems from a new one-off factor (the sharp fall in aerospace output caused by delays in input deliveries) and masks an encouraging rebound in household consumption. In the United States, growth reached its highest level since Q2 2025 (0.8% q/q), driven by buoyant private domestic demand.
As expected, the Fed, the ECB, and the BoJ left their rates unchanged this week. This pause, however, does not mark the end of the cycle. The ECB’s tone is becoming more balanced, weighing inflationary risks against tightening financial conditions, but one final rate hike in December remains our base case. Across the Atlantic, Kevin Warsh describes an environment conducive to further tightening, while remaining cautious about the risk of a credit shock. In Japan, the lasting exit from the deflationary cycle is taking shape, and monetary policy adjustment is expected to continue gradually. We anticipate two rate hikes by the Fed by January and four by the BoJ by the second half of 2028.
European households are now facing a new energy shock, following that of 2022. Since the start of the year, Eurozone inflation has climbed from 1.9% y/y in February to 3.8% in September. Energy is the main driver, in the wake of the conflict in the Middle East. The shock is feeding straight through to consumer prices, mainly via fuel and gas prices.
Growth looks to have held up in Q3 despite successive shocks, as it did in 2025 and H1 2026. A longer Middle East conflict has fed into more persistent inflation; drought has worsened in many countries, and interest rates have risen further – at the short end, with both the ECB and the Fed raising policy rates in September, and even more at the long end. However, our nowcasts show that growth is bending without breaking in most advanced economies.
The 2022 energy crisis clearly highlighted the issue of electricity prices in Europe – and, more broadly, the issue of energy prices. As a result, European manufacturers’ competitiveness has been severely undermined when compared with the United States and China. By reigniting tensions over electricity prices, the conflict that began in the Middle East in late February 2026 further underscores the continent’s vulnerability to fossil fuel imports, despite the expansion of renewable energy. Faced with an environment of potential sharp and sudden price rises, European governments do not have the same room for manoeuvre.
Rising energy prices are pushing inflation higher in Europe and the United States, while energy’s contribution is slightly negative in Japan. Over recent months (3m/3m), core indices have been firming in the euro area and Japan: a signal to watch. In Europe and Japan, pressure on producer prices is building. The risk of the energy shock spilling over to other CPI items is increasing. Markets (swaps) are pricing this rise in inflation into short-term measures. Long-term expectations (5y5y) are rising in Japan and the UK.
The September PMI surveys confirm that growth in the Eurozone is getting stronger, boosted in particular by new export orders, which are still rising. Sectors that were already performing well – technology and capital goods (including for defence) – are continuing to grow, while those that had been struggling until now – aeronautics, consumer goods and financial services – are seeing their production indices recover. This strong performance is particularly noteworthy, given that it has not yet been undermined by higher inflation.
In 2026, the European economy will not perform better than it did in 2025. At 1.4% (IMF estimate), its growth remains half as fast as in the United States. Still, there are more and more signs that Europe is regaining strength. The energy crisis, which has now been ongoing for eight months, would have caused it to halt in other times. Beneath an apparent sluggish activity, productivity is rebounding, while many sectors are picking up steam.
Business creations rose by 12% y/y over the first eight months of 2026. This is significantly higher than the 5.3% y/y growth recorded in 2025. This increase was driven by sectors linked to information and communication technologies.
Eco Charts | Business creations and bankruptcies is a new publication aimed at providing an overview of the dynamics of business creations and bankruptcies in France, as well as the risks associated with the latter. We will publish regular updates to this publication on a quarterly basis.
Since June 2026, the ECB has been publishing a new indicator that helps to assess the transmission of its monetary policy to the economy: the Broad Intermediation Gauge (ECB-BIG). This new tool has revealed that, thus far, strong credit growth has limited the restrictive impact of tightening financial conditions caused by rising interest rates in the Eurozone. However, this offsetting effect is beginning to fade.
GDP growth is proving more resilient to shocks than anticipated. Second-quarter figures confirm this trend: despite rising oil prices, growth remains supported by various reflationary forces. At the heart of this cycle lies a clear driver: Artificial Intelligence (AI). Consequently, major global economies are ramping up investment in capital goods.
On 8 and 9 October, the European Commissioner for Trade and Security, Maroš Šefcovic, will visit Beijing. The European Union’s trade deficit with China on manufactured goods stands at EUR 400 billion over a twelve-month period, driven by a surge in imports. That said, as a proportion of GDP, it is below its 2022 peak (2.1% compared with 2.5%). Furthermore, the aggregate figure masks contrasting realities: 1) with the exception of the automotive sector and Germany, exports are holding up, including service exports; 2) the loss of the Chinese market has been largely offset by third markets; and 3) the real challenge lies in the move upmarket of products imported from China
Overall, based on data available through September 2026, economic activity continues to show resilience. The high levels of business climate surveys illustrate this well. Household confidence, however, is more vulnerable and sensitive to energy price pressures. Financing conditions in emerging economies also continue to hold up well against the shock (much better than in 2022) as well as against the tensions in DM bond markets.
The overall picture from the confidence surveys available for September is globally positive. According to the PMIs, the business climate in services has indeed seen a clear improvement, and that in the manufacturing sector remains comfortably in expansion territory for the 8th month in a row. However, household confidence has recorded its first decline in 5 months, likely driven by rising inflation and concerns over purchasing power.
The 2027 budget, adopted by the French Council of Ministers today, calls for a reduction in France’s fiscal deficit to 5% of GDP in 2027 (down from 5.4% in 2026). This is a first step towards the multi-year fiscal consolidation needed to stabilise the public debt-to-GDP ratio. This ratio is expected to rise further in 2027 and until the deficit is reduced to 3% of GDP. Furthermore, given the increase in some expenditures (+0.6 pp of GDP for debt service and defence spending), the projected fiscal effort amounts to 1 pp. Nearly one-third of this effort would come from higher compulsory levies, and two-thirds from curbing government and social spending.
In Europe, the possibility of a US ban on diesel exports has heightened concerns about price trends for this widely used fuel, which has already risen significantly since the outbreak of the conflict in Iran. It has become a major political issue on both sides of the Atlantic in the run-up to decisive elections.
The 2026–2027 El Niño climate event is expected to be one of the most intense in the last fifty years, with sea-surface-temperature anomalies potentially exceeding +3°C in the equatorial Pacific. According to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), El Niño is expected to persist until February 2027, with asymmetrical effects, as South-East Asia and northern Latin America will experience droughts, while southern Brazil and Argentina could see heavy rainfall. Above all, El Niño is compounding the effects of global warming and exacerbating existing extreme-weather events (droughts, floods and heatwaves). The economic effects of this climate shock mainly play out through three avenues: agricultural commodity prices, energy and logistics.
In 2026, the government once again failed to stabilise its public debt-to-GDP ratio due to a significant fiscal deficit and lower-than-usual growth. According to our analysis, this underperformance is due to exceptional factors. Structurally, France can still generate growth that will help the public debt ratio to stabilise, provided that its budget deficit is brought down to approximately 3% of GDP
Growth was stronger than expected in Q2 and is set to strengthen further in the coming quarters. According to our forecasts, it will reach 1.5% in 2027 after 1.1% in 2026. This growth is expected to be driven by investment and its knock-on effect on exports. On an annual average basis, inflation is expected to stand at 3% in 2026 and 2.8% in 2027, peaking at the end of 2026. The ECB is expected to continue its monetary tightening. At this stage, a single further rate rise, aimed at keeping inflation expectations anchored, is expected in December. The impact of rising interest rates (key policy rates and market rates) on public finances and private sector borrowing conditions will be worth monitoring.
Growth, which began in the fourth quarter of 2025, gained momentum in the first half of 2026. This momentum should continue, with expected growth of 1.1% in 2026 and 1.3% in 2027. In the short term, the main driver will still be exports, particularly to Europe, which will contribute to restructuring industry. The impact of investment plans is expected to strengthen in 2027, while domestic demand is likely to remain constrained by inflation (2.7 % in 2026 and 2.6 % in 2027), which will weigh on purchasing power. Fiscal stimulus and structural reforms are expected to continue to support growth. However, the rise in the deficit and debt levels means that the increase in long-term interest rates observed so far is mostly structural.
French economic growth will underperform in 2026, partly due to a number of exceptional setbacks. In 2027, it is expected to rebound to 1% (compared with 0.5% in 2026), supported by rising external demand (particularly from Europe). So far, businesses and households appear to be weathering the rise in inflation relatively well, although it is expected to continue (we are forecasting 2.3% inflation in 2027, following 2.4% in 2026). Fiscal consolidation remains challenging, complicated by the weak growth seen in 2026, and is expected to be implemented gradually. As a result, public debt is expected to rise, with a moderate upside risk due to the rise in sovereign-bond yields.
Italian GDP grew 0.2% q/q in Q2 2026, bolstered by household consumption and investment financed by European funds, while the manufacturing sector is not benefitting from the same improvement seen elsewhere in Europe (due to lower exposure to the tech sector). As a result, we expect growth to remain quite stable in 2026 and 2027 (0.9% and 0.8%, respectively), despite an improving momentum in the Eurozone. Inflation acceleration is mainly driven by energy prices, which are weighing on the recovery of purchasing power. Disinflation should be observed in 2027, with inflation standing at 2.1%, after 2.9% in 2026. The fiscal deficit narrowed to 3.1% of GDP in 2025 on the back of a stronger primary surplus, but the rising debt burden points to increasingly tight fiscal margins.
According to our forecasts, Spanish growth is set to remain stable at a healthy level (2.6% in 2026 and 2.2% in 2027), significantly higher than that of the euro area. Growth is being driven by consumption, investment and a labour market that is still buoyant. The industrial recovery is more pronounced than the European average due to advantages in terms of labour and energy (mix and cost). Nevertheless, in the absence of productivity gains, the labour market is approaching its structural limits, as reflected in particular by inflation that is higher than the European average. At the same time, the fiscal trajectory remains favourable, with a falling deficit and debt-to-GDP ratio, as well as a contained spread.
A pillar of the NextGenerationEU programme, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) will expire on December 31, 2026. As of the end of August 2026, slightly more than three-quarters of the total budget had been disbursed (EUR 440 billion out of EUR 573 billion). Disbursing the remaining quarter (EUR 133 billion) by the end of the year will require a significant increase compared with the historical pace (EUR 90 billion per year). The goal of channeling these funds toward productive investment appears to have been achieved.
