Companies still aren't hiring, and until they do, it's hard to see strong consumer spending.

The manufacturing sector is benefiting from strong global growth and investment. That's particularly true in Germany, which tends to specialize in high quality capital goods.

We should see some small increases in retail sales over coming months, but without a decent pickup in the labor market and incomes, we won't see much of an improvement.

Consumers are still the weakest element within the recovery. European companies are still reluctant to hire, and it will take a long period of recovery before they start to do so.

We've started to see a gradual improvement in the labor market, and that will slowly feed through to consumer spending and boost services more widely.

There's only so much you can do of trying, finding yourself very close to getting a part and then not getting it.