In One Chart You'll See What A Horrible Month Europe Just Had

Europe had a horrible March.

Cyprus was a mess. Italy is a mess. And the economy is going down the toilet.

We fleshed out all of these points yesterday, but we wanted to extract one chart from the last one, which is key.

This chart is the Citi Eurozone Economic Surprise Index, which attempts to gauge how well economic data is coming in relative to expectations. (Thanks to @guan for making the chart)

What the chart shows you is that just a few weeks ago, a lot of data was still beating consensus estimates. Then that turned on a dime in March, as we saw horrible numbers on employment, manufacturing, industrial production, retail sales, and so forth.

Specifically, in late February the index stood at +70 and is now at -8. A devastating turn.

The Eurozone should be happy that April will bring a refresh.