Economic News Varoufakis’s wings clipped

EUR German import prices
GBP Industrial order expectations
USD Flash servies PMI

Negotiations with Greece and the Eurozone continue to dominate market headlines for all the wrong reasons. Greece reshuffled it's bailout negotiating team which included limiting the power of Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, after three months of talks with creditors failed to unlock aid and a meeting with his Euro-area counterparts ended in animosity. Last Friday’s Eurogroup meeting ended in name calling as the currency bloc’s finance ministers branded Varoufakis an amateur, time waster and a gambler. Varoufakis’s role will now be limited to supervising the political negotiations with Euro area member states and the IMF.

Data from the UK showed an easing in economic activity. Fresh evidence of a slowdown in Britain’s growth rate was highlighted by the CBI when it said manufacturers were expending production at their slowest rate in more than two years.

GBP Preliminary GDP
GBP Mortgage approvals
GBP Index of services
USD Consumer confidence

In today’s docket, UK GDP is expected to slow slightly from 0.6% to 0.5% whilst there will be a lot of focus on the consumer confidence in the US with the next move in interest rates being openly signposted to the market. CB consumer confidence from the US is forecast to increase to 102.6.

Keep up to date with our 'Election watch' in the countdown to the UK General Election.