Economic Outlook: Fed runes to be read Traders will seek fresh insight into central banks" latest thinking on the need for more economic stimulus this week. Minutes from the US Federal Reserve's last monetary policy meeting and the Bank of England's inflation report are due to be published on Wednesday. The US central bank's Open Markets Committee left its policy on hold in April, and its accompanying statement was similar to the one issued in March. But with faltering jobs creation and other signs of strain in the US economic recovery, attention will focus on the balance of the discussion between members calling for further stimulus and those against more quantitative easing. The BoE's quarterly inflation report will help define market expectations of the likelihood of more QE in the UK as the central bank seeks to address stubbornly high prices as well as a faltering economy. "US and UK central bankers seem less relaxed about the inflation outlook than at any time since the collapse of Lehman Brothers," said Stephen Lewis, chief economist at Monument Securities. It would be as difficult to find evidence that QE has contributed to higher-than-expected inflation as it is to identify its impact on economic growth. But, as policy makers are probably well aware, that would not absolve a central bank from blame if it were to press on with QE at a time when public concern about inflation was on the increase. The performance of economies at the heart of the eurozone will also come under scrutiny. Preliminary gross domestic product data from France and Germany are due to be published on Tuesday. Both are expected to remain weak, highlighting the problems faced by the currency area as the debt crisis on its periphery continues to overshadow its heartlands. Paris is expected to report quarter-on-quarter growth of 0.1 per cent, while Berlin is thought likely to avoid falling back under the technical definition of recession by reporting flat GDP after a fall of 0.2 per cent over the previous quarter. Eurozone-wide preliminary first-quarter GDP figures, also out on Tuesday, are set to show a contraction of 0.3 per cent, mirroring the reading for the previous quarter. Attention will remain on Germany on Wednesday, with the publication of the more forward-looking ZEW survey into economic sentiment. Its economic expectations component looks likely to ease back from a reading of 23.4 in April to 23 in May, with the outcome of the elections in Greece and France adding to political uncertainty in the eurozone. The "current conditions" component is forecast to slip from 40.7 to 40. The UK's total trade balance figure on Tuesday is poised to widen further, from £3.4bn in February to £3.6bn in March. The visible trade balance, which refers to physical goods and excludes data from the dominant services sector, is forecast to hold steady at £8.8bn. Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said: "Of particular concern to UK exporters is the likely ongoing contraction in the eurozone through the first half of 2012. Meanwhile, moderate domestic demand is likely to limit UK imports over the coming months. US consumer price inflation data for April are poised to reflect a decline in fuel prices, with the petrol component of the data expected to ease 3.2 per cent from the previous month. Overall, the headline reading should fall 0.1 per cent from March.