It's May, which means it's time to summarize the economic results of the first quarter of 2024. Despite 2024 being much better for the European economy than 2023, it still faces several problems that cannot be ignored. The first issue is that high inflation has finally started to slow down. In April of this year, it finally fell to 2.4%, which is sufficient for the ECB to start considering lowering the key rate.

European politicians are also strongly advocating for a rate cut, as they face falling GDP and a massive rise in the cost of living due to expensive loans and high energy prices. Particularly loud complaints are coming from Germany, where the economy grew by only 0.2% in the first three months of 2024. This is better than the negative growth in 2023, but in the context of Russia's economy, which is expected to grow by 5.6% this year under sanctions, Germany does not look very good.
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