Recession fears hit global markets, but German morale improves - business live
(The Guardian Business News)

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as markets are hit by anxiety over the global economyLatest: German business morale has picked upIntroduction: Asian markets slide amid recession worriesEuropean markets fallScramble for government bonds pushes down yields`Inverted´ yield curve raises recession fearsNikkei falls 3%, biggest drop of 2019 10.14am GMT The Brexit crisis is hurting German manufacturing, warns IFO economist Klaus Wohlrabe.Wohlrabe says the uncertainty over Britain´s departure helps explain why factory morale keeps falling, even as other sectors become cheerier.`Brexit uncertainty is particularly hitting the industrial sector. The other sectors don´t appear to be affected.`March #ifo more upbeat than Friday´s gloomy #PMI signal and first increase since August 2018 is definitely goods news. Time will tell how durable it is, but #Germany´s #manufacturing weakness is not over yet. pic.twitter.com/AIWTriasVm 10.03am GMT It´s not all good news, though. The IFO Institute points out that German factory bosses are even gloomier than a month ago, reflecting worries over trade war and Brexit.The rebound in the German Ifo index was welcome, but the further fall in manufacturing confidence keeps risks firmly tilted to the downside. #recession https://t.co/zg6yeAEDkH pic.twitter.com/tiULwcYClP Continue reading...