Germany's DIW Institute: German economy to grow by around 0.1% in first quarter

The German economy is expected to expand by only 0.1% in the first quarter of the year, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing Germany's DIW Economic Institue. 

"So far, however, the corona effect has been unclear and cannot be quantified," DIW Economic Director Claus Michelsen noted in a statement and added that the industrial recession would continue regardless of the outbreak. "The export-dependent German industry would be particularly affected if coronavirus continued to spread worldwide."

EUR/USD reaction

After testing the 1.0900 handle earlier in the session, the EUR/USD pair came under renewed selling pressure in the last hour and was last seen trading near 1.0880, where it was virtually unchanged on a daily basis.