‘The holiday standstill experienced by the stock markets recently is over now,’ says SKB-Bank’s Dealing Department Director Anton Khavin.

'The European Central Bank kept the refinancing rate at 4% last week, but it’s not very likely to decrease any further; quite on the contrary, the rate might as well go up to offset the 3% inflation that threatens to harm the region’s economy. In the meantime, the U.S. financial authorities report they might let their rate keep decreasing,’ he notes.

'Data related to Europe’s GDP growth in 2007 are expected to arrive this week, alongside with the Business Expectation Index that reached its minimum over the last fourteen years (which means Europe’s economic prospects are looking less bright). The European Central Bank is one of the few global banks that is still willing to increase the rates despite the slowing economic growth. The bank’s strong desire to control the inflation will definitely make the Euro stronger among the other currencies,’ Mr. Khavin believes.

'As for the States, they are also expected to come up with data on their production and consumption dynamics in December 2007 this week. Their cost prices rose by over 7% throughout the year, which has been the highest-ever figure since 1981. In addition, there will appear a series of reports on economic growth; I’d say some rather unimpressive data on the real estate market are to be expected,’ he says.