European Economic News Preview: ECB To Cut Interest Rates
(RTTNews) - The European Central Bank is widely expected to cut its interest rates on Thursday after inflation fell below the 2 percent target in May.
Markets expect the bank to lower the deposit rate by another 25 basis points to 2.00 percent. The bank has reduced the policy rates by a quarter points each in every rate-setting session since September.
The announcement is due at 8.15 am ET. ECB Chief Christine Lagarde is slated to hold the press conference at 8.45 am ET.
Other major economic reports due for the day are factory orders and construction Purchasing Managers' survey results from Germany.
At 1.45 am ET, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs is scheduled to issue Swiss unemployment data. The jobless rate is forecast to remain unchanged at 2.8 percent in May.
At 3.30 am ET, S&P Global releases Germany's construction PMI data for May.
At 4.30 am ET, UK construction PMI data is due. The index is forecast to rise to 47.2 in May from 46.6 in the previous month.
At 5.00 am ET, Eurostat is slated to publish euro area producer prices for April. Economists forecast producer prices to fall 1.8 percent on a monthly basis, following a 1.6 percent drop in March.
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