Central banks are back on the economic agenda this week, with the BoC the BoJ and the Riksbank holding their monetary policy meetings. None of the three Banks is expected to proceed with any policy changes and thus, investors will be looking for hints with regards to their future plans. As far as data releases are concerned, Australia’s inflation figures for Q1 are coming out, as well as the 1st estimated of the US GDP for the same quarter.
Monday is Easter Monday for most of the G10 nations and thus, most markets will be closed. Bourses are open only in China, Japan, Canada and the US. With regards to data, we only get the US existing home sales for March, which are expected to have declined 2.3% mom after rising 11.8% in February.
On Tuesday, the calendar is very light as well. The only release worth mentioning is the US new home sales for March and the forecast suggests that they declined 5.6% mom after a 4.9% increase in February.
On Wednesday, during the Asian morning, Australia’s CPIs for Q1 are due to be released. The forecast is for headline inflation to have slowed to +1.5% yoy from +1.8% in Q4 2018, while the trimmed mean yoy rate is anticipated to have ticked down to +1.7% yoy from +1.8%. Both rates would still be below the lower end of the RBA’s 2-3% inflation target range, but they will be near its own projections for the first half of 2019, which are +1.4% for the headline CPI and 1.8% for the trimmed mean rate.
The statement from the latest RBA meeting had a softer tone than previously, with officials refraining from repeating that unchanged rates would be consistent with...
Read the full financial markets weekly outlook on JFD Research.