Already hanging up the tinsel

The strength of the global economy has been heartening and stock-brokers have not been unresponsive to this. Things are good across the Atlantic and are even better in the eurozone. The forward indicators that reflect the mood of investors have been the highest for the last seven years. Orders and employment are growing, mostly in the largest European economies, Germany and France, which have recently seen only sluggish economic growth. In October the European Central Bank announced that it would continue buying bonds, i.e. pumping money, into the eurozone economy, on a slightly smaller scale but for longer – until autumn 2018. The quantitative easing of the money supply (the purchasing of bonds by central banks) which started after the crisis of 2007 and 2008 will be continued in the eurozone even when interest rates go up. The signal is clear and has been taken on board by the markets: the central bank of the eurozone will continue to push for economic growth. The same is the