The U.S. dollar was seen posting strong gains on the week after the euro currency was weakened following the ECB’s monetary policy meeting.

Economic data from the U.S. was also stronger with Friday’s GDP reporting showing that the U.S. economy advanced 2.3% in the first quarter of the year.

This was higher than the forecasts that pointed to a 2.0% increase, but slower than the previous quarter’s 2.9% increase.

Eurozone private sector growth expands at a slower pace

Private sector growth was seen rising a moderate pace of expansion, however there were clear signs of weaker growth with both supply and demand constraints.

The Eurozone composite output index was seen unchanged at 55.2 in April, flash PMI data from IHS Markit shows last week.

Economists were forecasting a decline to 55.0 during the month.

Despite the slowdown from the previous month, the index which is still above 50 indicated expansion in the sector.

The data showed one of the weakest pace of expansion since 2017.

Data from Markit showed that there were lower inflows of new orders including a weaker business outlook and lower optimism.

The data indicates that further slowdown could be experienced by businesses.

The Eurozone first quarter GDP data will be coming out within the next few weeks and economists forecast that the pace of GDP expansion might have slowed significantly.

“The April data are running at a level broadly consistent with Eurozone GDP growth of approximately 0.6 percent at the start of the second quarter,”

Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit, said.

The flash PMI numbers for April indicated an apparent sharp slowdown in the first quarter was not due to a major downturn.

Optimism still remains that growth could rebound in the coming months.

Germany Ifo Business Sentiment declines

Business confidence in Germany continued to deteriorate in April, data from the German Ifo institute showed last week.

The German Ifo business sentiment index was seen falling to 102.1 in April.

In March, the Ifo business sentiment index was registered at 103.3. Economists forecast that the index would fall to 102.8.

The Ifo data showed that the current business situation declined including business expectations as well.

The data pointed to a possible slowdown in the German economy.

The current situation index was seen at 105.7, down from 106.6 in March and missed estimates of 106.5.

The expectations index was seen falling to 98.7 in April compared to 100.0 that was registered in the month before.

The Ifo business sentiment report comes just a week after the German trade balance had narrowed.

The narrowing in the trade balance came amid a slowdown in the German exports as well as imports.

The underlying data combined with the Ifo business sentiment index confirms that after the Eurozone’s largest economy posted strong economic growth last year, the momentum may have slowed in the first month of the second quarter.

China GDP maintains 6.8% growth

China’s gross domestic product (GDP) was seen expanding at an annual rate of 6.8% during the three months ending March 2018.

This marked an unchanged print from the previous annual GDP growth rates from the past two quarters.

Economists polled, forecast that the world’s second largest economy might have expanded at a pace of 6.5%.

With the first quarter GDP data, China’s economy has been advancing at a steady pace and stays just above the target GDP rate of 6.5%.

Most of the gains from the GDP growth was seen coming from increased consumer demand.

The higher pace of increase on the consumer side was seen coming on account of improved wages in urban areas.