Economic data for the week ahead is expected to remain somewhat subdued.

The ECB’s monetary policy meeting, due on Thursday and the advance GDP report from the U.S. are the only two high ticket items lined up this week.

Australia will of course be reporting on its quarterly inflation figures as well as the import and export price data ahead of the GDP release later this month.

ECB meeting expected to throw no surprises

The European Central Bank will be holding its monetary policy meeting this week on Thursday.

Expectations remain flat with interest rates and QE to remain unchanged.

This comes following the May ECB meeting where policymakers announced the change to the forward guidance.

The ECB will be cutting its current bond purchases by half to just 15 billion euro a month starting September and is planning to end its bond purchases by December this year.

With the recent inflation data showing that core inflation eased to rise at a pace of just 0.9% against previous estimates of a 1.0% increase, officials are likely to remain cautious.

However, the headline inflation rate was seen rising 2.0%, matching the ECB’s inflation target rate.