European Economic News Preview: Germany Unemployment Data Due

(RTTNews) - Unemployment from Germany and monetary aggregates from the euro area are the top economic news due on Thursday.

At 3.00 am ET, the Office for National Statistics releases UK GDP and current account figures for the fourth quarter. The initial estimate showed that the economy contracted 0.3 percent sequentially at the end of the year.

In the meantime, Destatis is scheduled to issue Germany's retail sales and labor force survey results. Sales are forecast to grow 0.3 percent on month in February, in contrast to the 0.4 percent fall in January.

Retail sales figures from Sweden are also due at 3.00 AM ET.

At 4.55 am ET, the Federal Labor Agency publishes Germany's unemployment data for March. The jobless rate is seen unchanged at 5.9 percent.

At 5.00 am ET, monetary aggregates from the euro area are due. M3 money supply is expected to grow at a faster pace of 0.3 percent annually in February, following a 0.1 percent rise in January.

At 6.00 am ET, producer prices from Italy and inflation data from Portugal are due.