European stock exchanges decline before the ECB meeting

The main stock indexes of Europe are declining on Thursday – investors are waiting for the publication of the results of the meeting of the European Central Bank.

Thus, the British FTSE 100 index declined to 7218 points, the French CAC 40 – to 6143 points, the German DAX – to 13133 points.

The main event of the day will be the ECB meeting. Since July, the regulator has completed its asset purchase program, and from today's meeting it is expected to raise the rate by 25 bps. However, a number of analysts predict an increase in the rate by half a percent at once – and this will be the first rate increase by this amount in 11 years. 

Such assumptions are based on data on inflation in the eurozone, which accelerated to a record 8.6% in annual terms by the end of June. A month earlier, inflation in Europe was 8.1%. Moreover, the ECB lags behind other regulators in raising rates, so today the central bank may resort to a more aggressive solution.

The results of the meeting will also largely determine the further dynamics of the European currency exchange rate. So far, the prospects of another depreciation of the euro to parity with the US dollar remain.