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Economics

Interest rates: The Bank of England is tipped to cut official interest rates on Thursday by at least a further half-point from their present historic low of 2 per cent. This would reduce rates to a level never before seen in the Bank’s 314-year history.

House prices: Further confirmation of the bleak state of the housing market will emerge tomorrow with the latest snapshot of conditions from Nationwide Building Society. Its figures are tipped to show that house prices fell by a further 1.5 per cent in December to end 14.7 per cent down in 2008.

Services sector: The pace of contraction in the services sector, the engine room of the economy, is expected to have accelerated in December, according to the latest CIPS/Markit purchasing managers’ survey, out tomorrow. Its headline index of activity is expected to have fallen to 39, from 40.1 in November. Any figure under 50 signals contraction.

Manufacturing output: Production at UK factories is tipped to have fallen again during November, according to official data due out on Friday. A drop of 0.5 per cent is forecast, after a 1.4 per cent fall in October. A similar drop is expected in the broader measure of industrial production that includes utilities and the extractive sector.

Producer prices: The cost of goods leaving factories is expected to have fallen by 0.7 per cent in December, extending a 0.7 per cent drop seen in November, according to official figures due out on Friday.

Eurozone GDP: Final estimates of GDP for the eurozone, due out on Thursday, are expected to confirm that the 16-nation bloc saw its economy shrink by 0.2 per cent during the third quarter.

Eurozone inflation: Price pressures in the 16-nation bloc are expected to have faded further during December, according to an initial estimate due out tomorrow. A headline inflation rate of 1.8 per cent, down from 2.1 per cent in November, is forecast. This would put eurozone inflation in line with the European Central Bank’s target of “close to, but under, 2 per cent” for the first time since August 2007.

Eurozone unemployment: The numbers of those out of work in the eurozone are expected to have risen during November, pushing the jobless rate up to 7.8 per cent, from 7.7 per cent in October, according to official data due out on Thursday.

Eurozone producer prices: The cost of goods leaving factories in the 16-nation bloc is expected to have dropped by 0.9 per cent in November, after a fall of 0.8 per cent in October, according to official data due out on Wednesday.

German industrial production: Manufacturing in Europe’s biggest economy is expected to have suffered a 2 per cent output fall during November, after a 2.1 per cent drop in October, according to official data due out on Friday.

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