Highlights
As expected, the European Central Bank left its key policy interest rate at 4.25 percent. The ECB increased their key rate by 25 basis points at its July meeting. The spread between U.S. and EMU interest rates is now 2.25 percent but there is only 75 basis point spread with the Bank of England. The latest flash reading for the harmonized index of consumer prices showed that inflation soared by 4.1 percent in July, the highest rate since statistics began in 1997. That means that inflation is double the ECB's inflation target of below but close to 2 percent. And June producer prices were up 8 percent on the year. M3 money supply growth however has slowed to 9.9 percent growth, but still far above its 4.5 percent reference rate. Like the Bank of England the ECB is caught between a rock and a hard place - rising inflationary pressures and a rapidly slowing economy. Germany, who is regarded as the engine of growth for the EMU has slowed rather dramatically. Manufacturing orders were down for the seventh consecutive month while retail sales sank 2.8 percent in June.

In contrast with the Bank of England, the ECB makes its decisions by consensus and does not publish minutes after its meetings. Rather, to explain the governing council's thinking, ECB president Jean Claude Trichet holds a press conference about 45 minutes after the meeting's conclusion. At that time, he reads a prepared statement and then responds to questions from the press.

2008 Release Schedule

Released On: 1/10 2/7 3/6 4/10 5/8 6/5 7/3 8/7 9/4 10/2 11/6 12/4