Another big week in local data, after last week’s decision by the RBA (Reserve Bank of Australia) to hold rates, all eyes will be on the unemployment figures on Thursday – but you shouldn’t gloss over the housing finance figures on Wednesday, as like the data release sequence, housing credit leads employment.
After the PMI – purchasing managers index – week internationally, its now “CPI Week”, with all eyes on inflation data from across the developed nations, mainly in the 2nd half of the week. Industrial production numbers are also coming through, and then laser like focus on Chinese GDP figures on Friday, with consensus at 8.4% year-on-year change. Can the Chinese authorities pull off a soft landing? The more interesting question is why are we still watching GDP numbers?
Remember, you can keep up to date with the MacroBusiness Economic Calendar, linked on the righthand sidebar, which includes weekly and monthly data release times and the European debt auction timetable.
From the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS):
Wednesday: Housing Finance, Feb 2012
Thursday: Labour Force, March 2012From the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA):
Wednesday: Luci Ellis (head of financial stability) speaks at Fed Reserve conference in Atlanta
Thursday: Credit card/ATM statistics Chart PackOther Local and New Zealand data
Tuesday: ANZ Job Advertisements, NAB Business Confidence
Wednesday: Westpac Consumer Sentiment
Thursday: MI Inflation expectationsInternational:
Tuesday: German merchandise trade, French industrial production, US Redbook and wholesale trade
Wednesday: Japan machine orders, US import/export prices;Biege Book and US Treasury Budget
Thursday: Japan PPI, French CPI, UK merchandise trade, EMU industrial production, US weekly jobless claims, US PPI
Friday: US money supply, Japan BOJ minutes, Chinese GDP/Industrial production and retail sales, German CPI, Italian CPI, US CPI, US consumer sentiment