Money Minute Monday 21 October: the week ahead

published 21 October 2019

Good morning and welcome to Monday's Money Minute, where we look ahead to this week's biggest financial stories.

On Thursday, the European Central Bank meets to decide on its next move on interest rates. It'll be the final meeting with Mario Draghi at the head of the eurozone's central bank. Christine Lagarde, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, is taking over the role.

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Draghi's decision to restart quantitative easing has proved controversial. So, as research group Capital Economics puts it, his final meeting "is unlikely to be the good-natured celebration of his achievements that he might have hoped for."

It also seems highly unlikely that there will be any new big market-moving announcements after this meeting. That said, Draghi is famously good at confounding market expectations, so perhaps he'll aim to go out with a bang.

It's also a pretty busy week for UK corporate news. Companies reporting third quarter results next week include consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser, pharma group AstraZeneca, and both Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays.

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