This time with the Bank of England cutting rates by half a percentage point on Thursday to a record low of 1.5 percent and the Bank of Korea cutting by a similar amount today to bring its seven-day repurchase rate to 2.5 percent, also a record low.
European data released on Thursday were pretty dreadful. From Bloomberg:
European confidence in the economic outlook fell to the lowest on record and unemployment rose to a two-year high, adding to pressure on the European Central Bank for more interest-rate cuts.
An index of executive and consumer sentiment dropped to 67.1 in December from 74.9 in the prior month, the European Commission in Brussels said today. That is the lowest since the index started in 1985. Separate data showed euro-area unemployment rose to 7.8 percent in November from 7.7 percent a month earlier...
... Euro-area GDP shrank 0.2 percent in the third quarter from the prior three months, which saw a similar contraction, the EU’s statistics office said in a separate report today...
Exports from Germany, Europe’s largest economy, plunged 10.6 percent in November, the biggest drop since records for a reunified Germany began in 1990, the Federal Statistics Office said today, and manufacturing orders fell for a third month...
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