The European Central Bank left monetary policy unchanged at its meeting yesterday as widely expected. The central bank retained the same language from the previous monetary policy meeting. At the press conference, the ECB President Draghi said that the central bank was monitoring the developments in the economy while he downplayed the recent soft patch in the economy. The euro was seen posting strong losses on the day.
Elsewhere, economic data over the day saw the release of the core durable goods orders which remained flat and fell short of expectations of 0.5%. Previous month’s data was revised down to 1.0%. Durable goods orders however increased 2.6% on the month. This beat forecasts of 1.6% on the month.
Looking ahead, the GDP data from the U.S. and the UK will be coming out today. The U.S. economy is forecast to rise 2.0% on the month while the UK’s GDP is forecast to rise at a slower pace of 0.3%. Later in the day, the Bank of England Governor Carney is expected to speak.
