This week all of investors' attention was attracted to the press conference of central banks and their statements about the future conduct of monetary policy. In addition, representatives of banks fulfilled the expected forecasts for further growth of interest rates and inflation.
Thus on Thursday the Bank of England issued a statement on the meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee, which is supposed to further moderate a raise in interest rates in the further conduct of England's Central Bank policies to promote inflation to the target level of 2%. Furthermore, making any global changes in monetary policy may influence future Brexit negotiations. In addition, the British statistical agency published data on retail sales for November, which amounted to 1.1% vs. 0.4% and showed an increase in volumes during the month.
In Germany the Deutsche Bundesbank published updated projections on inflation and GDP growth, thus in 2018 the inflation rate is predicted to be at 1.6%, while GDP growth is expected to amount to 2.5%.
The growth rate of business activity in the eurozone in December was the highest in nearly seven years. The European Central Bank continued to pursue ultrasoft monetary policy and left rates unchanged.
The Swiss National Bank expects that inflation will not exceed the target mark and also kept its monetary policy leaving the rate unchanged at -0.75%.
Yesterday the US Department of Commerce released data on retail sales which showed they were higher than projected and amounted to 0.8% vs. 0.3%, which indicated a growth in consumer demand during the holiday season. However, the danger for the course of the reserve currency and stocks rests in the background of uncertainty about tax reform.
