BRUSSELS (AFP) - Eurozone data to be released in the coming week will show inflation is easing, but that the outlook for German growth is deteriorating while British figures should provide clues about future interest rate action, economists said.
"In the euro area, the data flow will be dominated by inflation data," UBS economist Holger Fahrinkrug said.
"Preliminary data from Germany and Italy suggest a slight moderation in annual consumer price inflation in September," Fahrinkrug said.
Royal Bank of Scotland economists forecast French provisional inflation figures for September, due out on Wednesday, will show price pressures abating.
"As in most other euro area countries, there are no signs of second-round effects from higher oil prices," they said.
Final inflation figures for Italy, to be released on Thursday, and for Germany, also due out during the week, are expected to confirm the view that price pressures are contained.
The other key release for the week, Germany's ZEW expectations index, due out on Tuesday, is forecast to point to flagging growth in the eurozone's largest economy.
"The index fell to a 15-month low in September and we see a further fall this month, making the eighth fall out of the 10 months so far in 2004," Royal Bank of Scotland economists said in a research note.
"We now believe that the 0.5 percent pace of second-quarter German growth will not be maintained," they said.
Among other releases, French industrial output, to be released on Tuesday, and Italian industrial output, due on Wednesday, are expected to provide little relief.
As for Britain, a raft of data in the coming week should go a long way to fixing market expectations about the likelihood of another interest rate hike from the Bank of England next month.
At present, most financial market analysts think the rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will raise the cost of borrowing another quarter point in November, taking its key repo rate up to 5.00 percent.
However, a slew of weak economic data over the last few weeks has raised the prospect that interest rates have already hit their peak at 4.75 percent.