020 7898 0500The key release on Friday was the eurozone’s inflation figure which, as expected fell a little. It had been forecast to come in at 1.3% in January from 1.4% the month before and so it proved. This led to some suggesting that the European Central Bank could be spurred into action sooner rather than later, as their target is 2% inflation. It is therefore a step in the wrong direction as far as Mario Draghi and his colleagues are concerned. It appears as if all three central banks have things to ponder at the moment.
Meanwhile, the German GDP growth figures were released. They too came in line with what had been forecast. The economy grew by 0.6% in the final quarter of 2017 while, year-on-year, the economy grew by 2.9%. That is some way ahead of the UK growth figures that were released last Thursday.
It is fairly quiet today, but tomorrow we will have the eurozone’s business confidence, as well as the services, industrial and economic sentiment. We will also see the German inflation rate which is expected to dip from 1.6% to 1.5%.
