European Economics Preview: ECB Expected To Hold Key Rate

Thursday, the European Central Bank rate decision is in spotlight. The announcement is due at 7.45 am ET. The Governing Council of the ECB is expected to hold its key interest rate, which is the interest rate on the main refinancing operations, at 1%.

At 2.45am ET, the French ILO jobless rate for the second quarter is due. In the first quarter, the unemployment rate was 9.1%.

Thereafter, the Riksbank interest rate decision is due at 3.30am ET. In the meantime, the Statistics Netherlands is scheduled to issue Dutch consumer prices details. Annual inflation is seen at 0.4% in August, up from 0.2% in July.

The services PMI reports for major European economies are scheduled for the day. The Italian services PMI, to be released at 3.45am ET, is expected to rise to 46 in August. The French services PMI is seen at 48.9 and German PMI at 54.1, both reading are expected to match their flash estimates. Further, at 4.00am ET, the Eurozone PMI is also predicted to come in line with flash reading of 49.5.

Half an hour later, UK’s HM Treasury is set to issue official reserves for August. Meanwhile, British services PMI is also due. The index is expected to rise to 54 in August from 53.2 in July.

At 5.00am ET, the Eurostat is slated to issue Eurozone retail sales data for July. After declining 0.2% in June, retail sales are forecast to rise 0.1% in July.