GBP
UK interest rates have been kept unchanged again by the Bank of England, They
have now been at their record low of 0.5% for six years.  Rates were first
cut to 0.5% in March 2009.  Recent growth in the economy has prompted
speculation that rates will start to rise again in the near future.
 Continuing low inflation, now at 0.3%, gives policymakers little reason
to raise the cost of borrowing.  The Bank also kept the size of its

GBP
UK interest rates have been kept unchanged again by the Bank of England, They
have now been at their record low of 0.5% for six years.  Rates were first
cut to 0.5% in March 2009.  Recent growth in the economy has prompted
speculation that rates will start to rise again in the near future.
 Continuing low inflation, now at 0.3%, gives policymakers little reason
to raise the cost of borrowing.  The Bank also kept the size of its
quantitative easing (QE) programme unchanged at £375bn.

Inflation is expected to remain low and could even turn negative
briefly largely to a near-halving in the price of oil since last summer.
 Mark Carney has even talked about lowering interest rates further to a
new record low, should prices remain near flat for longer than expected. Minutes
of last month’s MPC meeting showed members voted no for a change to interest
rates. There was a debate revealing a three-way split between the nine members
as to their future direction, with two arguing there could be a case to raise
rates later this year.

EUR
The European Central Bank has raised this year’s eurozone growth forecast to
1.5%, up from 1% previously. Mario Draghi said economic growth in the eurozone
would strengthen slowly to reach 2.1% by 2017.  He said there would be low
negative inflation in the months ahead before prices began to rise in late
2015, with 1.8% inflation in 2017.  The bank kept the eurozone’s key
interest rate unchanged at 0.05%, as expected.

The ECB QE scheme will inject at least €1.1 trillion (£834bn) into the
eurozone economy by purchasing €60bn of assets a month from next week until
September 2016, Mr Draghi added. It will start on Monday 9th march. He
also said Greece could not rely on the ECB to raise the limits on Athens of
short-term debt, and that the rules also meant the ECB could not buy Greek
bonds under its new asset-buying programme. 

USD
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits last week
rose to its highest level since May, which could raise concerns about some
weakness in the labour market. Other data on Thursday showed non-farm
productivity contracted more sharply than previously thought in the fourth
quarter as output failed to keep up with a jump in hours.  Initial claims
for state unemployment benefits increased by 7,000 to a seasonally adjusted
320,000 for the week ended Feb. 28, the highest reading since mid-May

Key Announcements:
USD 13.30 – Non-Farm Employment Change  expected to fall to 240k
from 257k

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