European Economic News Preview: Bank Of England To Cut Rates
(RTTNews) - The monetary policy announcement from the Bank of England is the top economic event due on Thursday.
The BoE is expected to cut its benchmark rate by a quarter-point to support economic growth.
Markets widely expect the BoE to lower the bank rate to 4.50 percent from 4.75 percent. The BoE had reduced the rate by 25 basis points each in August and November last year.
Factory orders and construction Purchasing Managers' survey results from Germany are other major economic reports due on Thursday.
At 1.45 am ET, unemployment data is due from Switzerland. The jobless rate is forecast to rise to 2.7 percent in January from 2.6 percent in December.
At 2.00 am ET, Destatis is scheduled to issue Germany's factory orders figures. Economists expect orders to grow 1.9 percent on month in December, in contrast to the 5.4 percent decrease in November.
At 3.30 am ET, S&P Global publishes Germany's construction PMI survey results.
At 4.30 am ET, UK construction PMI survey data is due. Economists forecast the index to rise to 53.5 in January from 53.3 in the previous month.
At 5.00 am ET, Eurostat is slated to release euro area retail sales data for December. Sales are expected to drop 0.1 percent on month, offsetting the 0.1 percent rise in November.