Eurozone CPI, unemployment data to highlight quiet session European Macroeconomic agenda cools off the end of the week, but the Eurozone`s flash consumer prices for November and October unemployment rate will definitely be worth watching. Market exports widely expect the two key figures to come as follows: - CPI Estimate (YoY) (Nov) 0.8% vs. 0.7% - Unemployment Rate (Oct) 12.2% vs. 12.2% The consumer price index (CPI) has been falling for three months in a row now but a slight uptick is expected to 0.8% this month, compared with October`s low of 0.7% - the slowest rate in four years. The CPI forecast is still much below the ECB`s unattainably high target of 2% over the medium term, underpinning the fragile state of the euro area economy. Moving to the Eurozone jobs market, the unemployment rate is expected to remain at 12.2%, unchanged from the previous month. The European Commission recently said unemployment will remain stuck at that record next year. Although the 17-nation euro bloc started to expand in the summer after a six-quarter double-dip recession, experts still believe there would be a lag before the pickup in activity leads to a fall in the jobless total, which is not seen before 2015. Participants believe the combination of sluggish growth, high unemployment and the threat of deflation will prompt the ECB into fresh efforts to boost the activity. The ECB cut interest rates to a record low 0.25% earlier this month and said it could take them lower still to prevent the euro-area`s recovery from stalling after inflation slipped to 0.7%. Today`s numbers will set the expectations on how dovish the ECB`s governor Mario Draghi will sound at the press conference after the central bank`s policy meeting next Thursday. The single currency was calm ahead of the eurozone data, with EUR/USD hovering quietly in the low range of 1.3600, but still poised to end the week higher, marking the longest weekly streak of gains since July.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 08:27:18 +0000
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