Further ECB rate cut expected on Thursday

In Europe, the attention will focused the European Central Bank (ECB) committee meeting on Thursday where a 50 basis points rate cut has been already pencilled in by economic pundits.

Meanwhile, markets will come across a barrage of economic data releases. The eurozone unemployment rate is expected to have jumped to 8.3% during February.

The composite Purchasing Manager Index (PMI) will also be scrutinised for signs of whether some expected stabilisation has filtered through.

The Eurozone Consumer Price (CPI) index estimate for March is expected to read 0.9%, slightly lower than February's 1.2%.

In the UK, there will be a few albeit very important releases this week. The main focus will be the release on some business activity related figures, in particular the manufacturing and construction PMI.

The services industry PMI for March is also due to be released this week, with markets expecting it to show a positive trend.

The Gfk Consumer Confidence will provide an insight on household confidence on future economic performance.

Mortgage approvals in February will wrap up the week, with markets expecting some positive figures.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the unemployment rate in March is expected to steal the limelight. This rate is expected to have soared to 8.5% from 8.1% in February.

Other employment figures comprise the change in non-farm and manufacturing payrolls both for March.

The fall in construction spending and factory orders is expected to have slowed during February.

Closing this week's data schedule is the ABC consumer confidence survey.

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