BRUSSELS (AFP) - Eurozone economic figures due out during the coming week are expected to show the outlook for both the manufacturing and service sectors is at best stalled, while the ECB and its British counterpart are expected leave interest rates steady, analysts said.
"The mood among purchasing managers (in the eurozone) became less buoyant in August and September, both for manufacturing and for services," Bank of America economist Lorenzo Codogno said.
"Higher oil prices and the stronger euro likely caused a further dip in October in manufacturing more than in services," Codogno said.
Lehman Brothers economists said in a note to clients that they expected "the increase in energy prices to feature prominently in purchasing managers' surveys" for manufacturing.
They forecast the purchasing managers index reports for services "will point to a continuation of a weaker trend".
Among other key data, German retail sales for September, due out on Tuesday, are forecast to show a decline.
However, German manufacturing orders for September, to be published on Thursday, are expected to stage a comeback after the decline in August.
And German industrial output for September, due on Friday, are also forecast to have recovered slightly after falling in August.
Unemployment in the eurozone's biggest economy, due on Wednesday, is forecast "to become slightly less bleak going forward", Codogno said.
Analysts see no change in monetary policy when the European Central Bank meets on Thursday, waiting until the second quarter of 2005 before lifting its main interest rate from 2.00 percent currently.
Of 31 economists surveyed by AFP and its financial news unit AFX News, all said they expected interest rates to be kep steady.
Meanwhile in Britain, industrial output for September, due for release on Friday, is expected to improve from August's dismal reading, but the third quarter is likely to show a significant decline, analysts said.
Manufacturing output should rise by 0.4 percent in September from August, and by 0.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the median forecast of analysts surveyed by AFX News.
The wider measure of industrial production, which also includes utilities output, is forecast to rise by 0.4 percent from August and by 0.1 percent from a year earlier.
"In the UK, industrial production data for September will be awaited with some degree of trepidation given the large declines in the previous three months," said analysts at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.
The Bank of England is expected to keep its key interest rate unchanged at 4.75 percent for the remainder of the year when it completes its latest rate-setting meeting on Thursday.
All 31 forecasters polled by AFX expected the bank's Monetary Policy Committee to keep borrowing costs unchanged following a raft of weak economic data, particularly in the housing market.
10/31/2004 - 08:11 GMT - AFP