Good morning and welcome to Money Minute, where we preview the day's biggest financial stories.
In the UK this morning, we get full-year results from pharma giant AstraZeneca, and also from Britain’s state-owned bank, RBS.
Over in the eurozone, we get fourth-quarter GDP data for Germany and also for the eurozone as a whole. Economic output is expected to have risen at an anaemic rate in Germany last year.
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Indeed, research consultancy Capital Economics reckons that German GDP probably shrunk a little during the fourth quarter. If that happens, then it’s quite possible that Germany could slip into recession during the first three months of this year, particularly if the coronavirus has a larger global impact than currently feared.
In the US, we get retail sales data for January. The US consumer is one of the most important economic forces in the world. Investors will be hoping that the retail sales data will demonstrate that American shoppers are still keen to splash the cash, whatever else is going on in the world.
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