2021.05.0605:31:00UTC+00European Economics Preview: Bank Of England Policy Announcement Due

The monetary policy announcement and quarterly economic forecasts are due from the Bank of England on Thursday, headlining a busy day for the European economic news.

Markets expect the BoE to announce some tapering of its quantitative easing given the notable improvement in outlook amid easing of restrictions related to the pandemic. The bank is expected to hold its key bank rate at 0.10 percent and quantitative easing at the current GBP 895 billion. The announcement is due at 7.00 am ET.

Other major economic news for the day are as follows:

At 2.00 am ET, Destatis releases Germany's factory orders data for March. Orders are forecast to grow 1.7 percent on month, following a 1.2 percent rise in February.

At 2.45 am ET, France's statistical office Insee publishes industrial investment survey data.

At 3.00 am ET, industrial output and retail sales from Hungary and wholesale and foreign trade from Austria are due.

At 4.30 am ET, IHS Markit releases UK final composite Purchasing Managers' survey data is due. The index is seen rising to 60.0 in April from 56.4 in the previous month.

Half an hour later, Eurostat is scheduled to issue euro area retail sales data for March. Sales are forecast to grow 1.5 percent on month, following a 3 percent rise in February.

At 7.00 am ET, Turkey's monetary policy announcement is due. The bank is expected to hold its one-week repo rate at 19.00 percent.

At 8.30 am ET, Czech National Bank announces its policy decision.