Eurozone Retail Sales Slump In October

"The ECB is highly unlikely to cut interest rates at its meeting tomorrow," said Marie Diron, senior economic adviser at Ernst & Young. "It has explained before that it thinks such a cut would have no impact on the economy as the transmission mechanism remains impaired."

As well as announcing its latest interest rate decision, the ECB is also due to unveil its latest quarterly economic projections. They're not expected to show a recovery in the eurozone economy before the second half of next year at the earliest as many governments continue to enact spending cuts and tax increases to lower debt.

A separate survey reinforced market expectations that the recession in the eurozone has continued into the fourth quarter. Though the monthly purchasing managers' index ⿿ a broad gauge of business activity ⿿ from financial information company Markit was revised up to 46.5 in November from the previous estimate of 45.8, the survey still points to recession ⿿ any reading below 50 points to a contraction in activity.

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

« First ‹ Previous 1 2