In other economic news, the US economy lost 80,000 jobs in March, the biggest drop in five years. The official unemployment rate rose to 5.1 percent. Since the start of the year, over 230,000 jobs have disappeared.

Brian Fabbri, chief economist of BNP Paribas: “The job losses that we’ve seen over the first three months of this year are basic confirmation of the fact that we probably have been in recession all year long. The idea, I think, is that not only will job losses make things more difficult, it will obviously cause consumer confidence to plunge, but it will also make it more difficult for people to actually go out and buy more things. And this is the downward spiral then that lost jobs create for the economy.”