Thursday preview: Rate revolt unlikely

7th Jul 2010 17:24

Bank of England policy meetings have been pretty dull affairs since the end of quantitative easing, but a difference of opinion at the last get together could make Thursday's result one to watch. Hawkish MPC member Andrew Sentance voted in June for a rate hike to 0.75% and said publicly that the time had arrived for the gradual withdrawal of stimulus measures. Fellow policymaker Adam Posen, however, said he doesn't think a "small slow upwards creep in inflation expectations" is "worth panicking over", and is definitely not a reason to tighten policy. Another MPC member, Paul Fisher, also warned against hasty rate rises.Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight, reckons "serious threats" to an already muted and fragile UK economic recovery mean a mass revolt in favour of higher borrowing costs is out of the question.In company news, global recruitment firm Hays is due to update Thursday. It's been seeing progress in most of its markets, although the dynamics vary by region. Australia, which escaped recession, has seen improved trends and the picture is also getting brighter in other Asia-Pacific countries. In Continental Europe & the Rest of the World, the group has seen strong growth in Brazil and the early signs of recovery in Germany, but Spain and the United Arab Emirates remained on a downward trend in the first four months of 2010. INTERIMS Sandvine Corporation QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE GlaxoSmithKline INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS Balance of Trade (GER) (07:00) Bank of France Business Sentiment (FRA) (07:30) Consumer Credit (US) (20:00) Continuing Claims (US) (13:30) Current Account (GER) (07:00) ECB Interest Rate (EU) (12:45) Industrial Production (GER) (11:00) Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30) Leading Indicator Index (JPN) (05:00) Q2 Sandvine Corporation FINALS Begbies Traynor Group IMSS Associated British Foods EGMS Maple Energy AGMS Albany Inv Trust, Condor Resources, FirstGroup, Framlington AIM VCT 2, Great Portland Estates, JPMorgan European Fledgling Inv Trust, London & Stamford Property, Man Group, Maven Income and Growth VCT , ORA Capital, Robert Wiseman TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS Hays UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS BoE Interest Rate Decision (12:00) Industrial Production (09:30) Manufacturing Production (09:30) NIESR Gross Domestic Product estimate