Euro-zone inflation due this Friday will be firmly in the sights of financial markets eager to establish whether the European Central Bank (ECB) has enough ammunition to ease monetary policy in the following week.
Inflation in the 18-member euro zone unexpectedly slowed to 0.7% year-on-year in January, matching a four-year low set last October and confounding expectations for a rise to 0.9%.
The ECB cut its main refinancing rate to a record low of 0.25% in November and left it at that level at its meeting earlier this month, but put markets on alert for a possible move in March.
ECB President Mario Draghi said the Governing Council had not acted in the past because of the complexity of the situation and the need to have more information.
The next meeting on March 6 will have new forecasts from the bank's staff extending into 2016.
Friday's February inflation figure could cause a fine-tuning of those forecasts, which form the basis of the ECB's monetary policy.
Further country data could mean the January figure being revised up to 0.8% on Monday, but the consensus view is for a 0.7% reading for February.
