Bank of England monetary policy decision in focus

February 2, 2017

A busy day ahead for markets, headlined by the Bank of England’s monetary policy decision.

Later tonight, the Bank of England meets to announce it monetary policy decision. This includes its decisions on interest rates and its bond buying program. As inflation continues to spike due to the weakening pound, it will interesting to see how the central bank addresses such issues within the economy. The central bank also needs to take into account that the UK parliament voted last night to allow the government to invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty (which enables the start of the EU exit).

As far as announcements go, there is still a fair bit of activity around the world.

Europe is releasing a few pieces of data later tonight. This includes: Spanish Unemployment Change, Swiss Retail Sales, and European PPI.  The ECB is also set to publish its Economic Bulletin, which details factors that came into consideration when they last met to decide monetary policy. Meanwhile, ECB President Mario Draghi is set to speak.

Elsewhere around the world, Japan is releasing Consumer Confidence data and the UK is publishing its Construction PMI. The US meanwhile, is releasing Challenger Job Cuts, Unemployment Claims, Prelim Non-Farm, Prelim Unit Labour Costs and Natural Gas Storage figures.