European Economic News Preview: ECB Monetary Policy Announcement Due
(RTTNews) - The monetary policy decision from the European Central Bank is the top economic event due on Thursday.
Markets widely expect the ECB to keep the interest rates on hold today but anticipate early rate cuts as inflation has slowed more sharply. The first reduction is likely to be in April.
The policy announcement is due at 8.15 AM ET. ECB President Christine Lagarde will hold press conference in Frankfurt at 8.45 am ET.
Other major economic reports due on Thursday are business confidence survey results from France and Germany.
At 2.45 am ET, France's statistical office INSEE publishes business sentiment survey data. Economists expect the index to remain unchanged at 100 in January.
At 3.00 am ET, Spain's INE publishes producer prices for December. Producer prices had declined 7.4 percent in November.
At 4.00 am ET, the market research group ifo is scheduled to issue Germany's business confidence survey data. The sentiment index is expected to rise to 86.7 in January from 86.4 in December.
In the meantime, Norges Bank announces its monetary policy decision. Economists forecast the bank to hold the rate at 4.50 percent.
At 6.00 am ET, the Confederation of British Industry is slated to release Distributive Trades survey results.
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