European Economics Preview: German, French, UK External Trade Data Due

Wednesday, external trade data from major economies such as Germany, France and UK are expected from Europe. The trade surplus in Germany is forecasted to fall in May, while the trade deficit is France is predicted to widen and UK's deficit is expected to narrow.

The day's news flow is set to start at 2.00 am ET with the release of the German foreign trade report. The trade surplus, to be released by the Federal Statistical Office, is forecasted to fall to EUR18 billion in May from EUR18.7 billion in the prior month. Meanwhile, the current account surplus is seen at EUR12.5 billion, smaller than the EUR14.5 billion surplus in April. The Federal Statistical Office is also slated to release the insolvencies report for April.

Thereafter at 2.45 am ET, the French construction cost for the first quarter and trade balance data for May are due. The trade deficit is forecasted to widen to EUR4 billion in May from EUR3.7 billion reported in the prior month.

At 3.00 am ET, the Slovak statistical office is expected to announce the retail sales data for May. At the same time, a preliminary report on external trade for January to May period is also due from the Hungarian statistical office.

Afterwards, the Swedish industrial production and industrial orders data for May are due from the Statistics Sweden. Following a 0.2% annual growth in April, industrial output is predicted to climb 0.8% in May.

Half an hour later, the Norwegian statistical office is slated to issue the wholesale trade price index results for the second quarter.

The UK trade report that is due at 4.30 am ET from the Office for National Statistics is forecasted to show an overall deficit of GBP4 billion in May, down from GBP4.32 billion. The visible trade deficit is predicted to narrow to GBP7.4 billion from April's GBP7.59 billion.

The Eurostat is slated to release the final GDP growth numbers for the first quarter at 5.00 am ET. The statistical office is expected to confirm the earlier sequential growth of 0.8% and annual increase of 2.2%.

UK's June shop price report from the British Retail Consortium is expected at 5.30 am ET. The BRC-Nielsen shop price inflation had accelerated to 1.8% in May from 1.2% reported in April.

by RTTNews Staff Writer

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