The week Ahead – BoJ, BoE, G20 and The Federal Reserve Meeting

US job numbers released on Friday approved markets expectations – another rate hike in the Federal Reserve next meeting on Wednesday. The Fed meeting will be the main event of the upcoming week. Anything but a rate hike will be a major surprise, in fact, investors will be closely watching for the rest of the year rate hike projections.

Apart from that, the week ahead contains many events with BoE, BoJ and SNB meetings to get indications of major central banks next policy actions. The G20 meeting on Friday and Saturday will also be an important event as global leaders meet to discuss the world economy.

Here are the main economic events of the upcoming week:

Tuesday

• Australia NAB Business Confidence will be released at 00:30 GMT and expected to fall to 8.75 from 10.
• China Retail Sales & Industrial Production will be published at 02:00 GMT. YoY  retail sales are expected to fall to 10.5% from 10.9% a month earlier, industrial production figure is expected to rise to 6.2% from previous 6.0%.
• German ZEW Sentiment for March will be released at 10:00 GMT and expected to rise to 13.0 from 10.4 in the previous month.
• US February PPI will be published at 12:30 GMT. MoM PPI is expected to grow be 0.1%, a decline from previous month 0.6%.
• Australia Westpac Consumer Confidence will be released at 23:30 GMT. The index previous reading was 99.6.

Wednesday

• UK Employment Rate and Claimant Count Change are expected to be released at 9:30 GMT. UK Employment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 4.8%, claimant count change is expected to fall by -5K, an improvement compare to -42K a month earlier.
• US Inflation Rate & Retail Sales for February will be be published at 12:30 GMT. YoY CPI is expected to rise to 2.7% from 2.5% while MoM is expected to rise by 0.2% compare to 0.6% a month earlier. Core inflation rate is expected to rise by 2.2% compare to 2.3%. Retail sales are expected to rise by 0.1% compare to 0.4% in January.
• Federal Reserve Interest Rate Decision will be published at 18:00 GMT. The Fed is expected to raise rates to a range of 0.75%-1.0%. A press conference will take place after the rate decision including Janet Yellen speech. Markets will pay attention to get further indications of more rate hikes during the rest of the year.

Thursday

• The Dutch elections results are expected to be released in the early hours of Thursday. With the increasing tensions between Netherlands and Turkey along with global concerns about Europe political uncertainty, the Dutch elections have major impact on financial markets.
• Australia Unemployment Rate will  be published at 00:30 GMT and expected to remain unchanged at 5.7%. 16,000 new jobs are expected to have been created during this month compare to 13,500 in the previous month.
• Bank of Japan Interest Rate Decision will be released at 03:00 GMT. The BoJ is expected to hold rates at -0.1%, to maintain its stimulus program of 10 year government yields at 0% and net 80 trillion Yen monthly Japanese government bonds purchase. Markets will be closely watching BoJ governor Haruhiko Kuroda press conference immediately after the rate decision.
• SNB Interest Rate Decision will be published at 8:30 GMT. The Swiss central bank is expected to hold rates at -0.75%. Markets will be analyzing SNB policy assessment to get further indications of the bank next steps.
• Bank of England Rate Decision will be published at 12:00 GMT. The BoE is expected to hold policy unchanged as the central bank remain neutral until further indication of the British economy will be revealed.

Friday

• Eurozone Trade Balance will be published at 10:00 GMT. Surplus expected to fall to €5.1 Billion from €28.1 Billion a month earlier.
• Michigan Consumer Sentiment for March will be released at 14:00 GMT. The index is expected to rise to 97 from 96.3.

Saturday

• G20 Meeting – The world’s 20 developed economies leaders will meet on Friday and Saturday in the German town Baden. The meeting will attract markets attention as it will be the first encounter of the new US president, Donald Trump and his administration with finance and political world leaders.

Check out our real-time Economic Calendar