(News Bulletin 247) – The main European stock markets posted timid gains (+0.2% in London, +0.3% in Frankfurt, +0.4% in Paris), on the whole rather convinced by the announcement a slowdown in inflation in the euro zone over the month that is ending.

According to a quick estimate, the annual inflation rate in the euro zone is estimated at 6.9% in March, thus marking a significant slowdown compared to 8.5% in February, and a level slightly below the 7% expected by Capital Economics.

“The fall was entirely due to a fall in energy inflation”, tempers the London analysis office, specifying that the underlying inflation rate (excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco) has on the contrary reached a new record 5.7%.

Also pointing to a tight euro zone labor market, with an unemployment rate remaining unchanged at 6.6% in February, Capital Economics therefore expects the ECB to continue raising its interest rates, bringing its deposit rate at a high of 4%.

Another major data published this morning, the gross domestic product (GDP) of the United Kingdom should have increased by 0.1% in the fourth quarter of 2022, an upward revision compared to an initially estimated stagnation.

The markets should finally be attentive, this afternoon in the United States, to the PCE price index – published at the same time as household income and expenditure – a statistic closely followed for the policy of the Federal Reserve.

In securities news, ABB gains more than 1% in Zurich ahead of the start on Monday of its new share buyback program of up to $ 1 billion, or a maximum of around 30 million shares based on the current price.

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