Eurozone Business Activity Shrinks But Vaccine Hopes Boost Optimism

Eurozone Business Activity Shrinks But Vaccine Hopes Boost Optimism
In this file photo a steel worker of Germany’s industrial conglomerate ThyssenKrupp AG stands a mid of emitting sparks of raw iron from a blast furnace at Germany’s largest steel factory in Duisburg, Germany on Jan. 28, 2019. Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters
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Eurozone business activity contracted sharply this month as renewed lockdowns forced many firms in the bloc’s dominant service industry to close temporarily, although news of possible vaccines boosted hopes for 2021, surveys showed on Monday.

The bloc’s economy is on track for its first double-dip recession in nearly a decade as a second wave of the coronavirus sweeps across Europe, a Reuters poll suggested last week. But on Monday, Britain’s AstraZeneca said its vaccine could be around 90 percent effective without any serious side effects.