All the day´s economic and financial news, including the ECB´s latest policy meeting and UK retail sales figuresLatest:ECB is voting on interest rates and QE todayIntroduction: European Central Bank decision todayLast night, US interest rates hiked againEarlier:UK retail spending jumped last monthHot weather and wedding fever boost sales 12.43pm BST Today´s meeting is in Riga, as part of the ECB´s policy of taking the governing council around the eurozone.But it´s not great timing, as Latvia´s central bank governor instead fighting corruption allegations and is barred by national authorities from even entering the central bank #awkward 12.22pm BST Tension is mounting in the markets as we await the European Central Bank´s decision on monetary policy, in under 25 minutes time.`Usually hints on policy come from anonymous `ECB sources´ but last week´s decision by the chief economist, Peter Praet, to go on manoeuvres and make statements about the QE programme could represent a major shift. It looks like the bank is prepared to discuss moving towards an end date for its QE programme, even if that end-date is still further away than many expect.`To give the ECB its due, it does look like the eurozone recovery is firmly in place. As we discussed here, the eurozone economy is still seeing increased strength, with unemployment falling overall and consumer spending rising, and even recent weakness in the composite PMI is not necessarily a cause for concern given the overall strength of the past year. Continue reading...
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