Provisionally, Euro-zone consumer inflation rose to 2.0% for February from 1.8% and was in line with expectations, although this was the strongest reading for four years.
Unemployment held at 9.6% for January with markets waiting for any signal of a policy change from the ECB and the inflation data did not provide support to the Euro.
Policy is expected to remain on hold at next week’s Council meeting, although comments from President Draghi will be watched closely.
Japanese Yen With JPY at a new 34 year low versus EUR, the market is set for an ambush by the Bank of Japan if it acts today at the end of their Policy Meeting to support the Yen. The reason that the market is susceptible is because it has convinced itself that the BoJ […]
Milan, Italy The City of Milan has a late night noise problem and so it has acted unilaterally to resolve it-Italian style. A ban on the sale of take away food including ice cream and pizza after midnight is being imposed to protect the “peace and health of residents.” Here in the UK late night […]
Coal tinted spectacles If you had to boil down the global economy into one category from the options of bad/fair/good, what would you choose? We all experience the economy vastly differently down to an infinite number of variables. But by and large the current phase we are in, characterised by strong global growth rates, record […]