The EU and UK Take a Few Modest Economic Hits

           At the end of 2016, economic news from the EU started turning more bullish.  Sentiment indicators from Markit economics were the first to pick this up which was followed by loan growth, retail sales, and finally industrial production.  Mario Draghi – the head of the ECB – has noted this trend on several occasions, most recently in his opening statements of the latest ECB policy announcement: