European markets have opened almost flat today, as investors awaited the minutes of the US Federal Reserve’s last month policy meeting to get additional hints on their future policy stand.

Closer home, investors await the release of the Bank of England (BoE) monetary-policy statement, due tomorrow, and the release of the BoE UK credit condition report, due later in the day. Earlier, data showed that the UK shop price index declined to almost seven years low in December, while Halifax reported that UK house prices unexpectedly declined 0.6% MoM in December, compared to an increase of 1.1% in the previous month.

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