020 7898 0500The European Central Bank’s press conference was perhaps the key takeaway across the eurozone from last week. As expected, interest rates were kept on hold but it was uncertain what tone the central bank would take in their subsequent conference. While they confirmed they would, for now at least, remain committed to purchasing €30 billion of new assets each month until September 2018, they also stated this could be increased and/or extended.
It is a fairly quiet start to the week but Tuesday sees a raft of economic data releases. We’ll have the eurozone’s business confidence for January, but the chief focus will be on the GDP growth rate for the fourth quarter of 2017. It is expected to remain healthy at 0.6%. The German inflation rate is also set for release later that same day.
On Wednesday we will have retail sales for Germany, as well as the unemployment figures for January. Eurozone unemployment rate for December will be released the same day and on Thursday, both Germany and the eurozone will release their manufacturing PMI readings for January. A pretty busy week all told.
