GBP
 
All the economic data in Europe  centered on Germany yesterday. Firstly, their unemployment rate stayed unchanged at 6.8%. Inflation is Germany continued to fall and fell to 0.5% Month on Month. This is only going to continue to increase the pressure on the ECB to further reduce interest rates in the Eurozone area.
 

GBP
 
All the economic data in Europe  centered on Germany yesterday. Firstly, their unemployment rate stayed unchanged at 6.8%. Inflation is Germany continued to fall and fell to 0.5% Month on Month. This is only going to continue to increase the pressure on the ECB to further reduce interest rates in the Eurozone area.
 
Business leaders and households in the Eurozone are there most optimistic for more than two years. The European Commission index of consumer business and business sentiment rose to 101.2 in February, this is the highest level since July 2011.Also industrial confidence and services sentiment surveys both showed positive increases from previous month. 
 
This is all positive news from Europe and shows that both consumers and business are growing more optimistic about key factors that drive economic growth.Despite, the good surveys, falling inflation in Germany did weaken the EUR yesterday as concerns over lowering interest rates weighed down the Euro.
 
USD
 
Head of the federal Reserve Janet Yellens testified in front of congress and reiterated the Feds stance that it will continue to taper QE, even as they monitor the recent data to determine if recent weak economic data is a temporary glitch due to poor weather conditions. 
 
Durable Goods orders fell much slower than the previous month and also beat forecasts coming in at -1%. Durable goods measure the cost of orders received by manufacturers for goods that have a life span of 3 years or more. These are seen as big investments carried out by companies and provide a good insight into how confident companies are to invest.
 
Continuing jobless claims also beat forecasts coming in at 2.964M, however, initial jobless claims rose to 384K for February missing economists’ forecasts.
 
Today
 
10:00 – EUR- Consumer Price Index (Feb) expected to be Lower at 0.7%
 
10:00 – EUR- Unemployment Rate (Jan) expected to be Unchanged at 12%
 
13:30 – USD- GDP for 2013 expected to come in at 2.5%
 
13:30 – USD- Personal Consumption Expenditure Q4 2013  lower at 0.7%
 
15:30 – GBP- Bank of England Governor Mark Carney is making a speech today.