Welcome to the EasyMarkets weekly outlook starting this Monday 19 December. We’ll be looking at the week’s key economic events on the financial calendar covering Monday to Thursday. Be sure to catch up with our Friday morning report that looks back at how the events played out and with a look at Friday’s events. This week’s action is coming out of Japan, New Zealand, the US and Canada.
Event: Japan rate decision
Date: Tuesday 20 December 2016 at 03:00 GMT
Markets affected: USD/YEN
Trending hashtags: #yen, #boj, #interestrate
Analysts are not expecting the Bank of Japan to make any changes to its monetary policy this month. Despite heavy losses for the Yen against the dollar when the Fed increased their interest rates last week, the BOJ commented that unless something drastic was to occur they might be maintaining their -0.1% rate. BOJ Governor, Haruhiko Kuroda noted that Japan’s fragile economy might be faced with weakening price momentum and that deflation is taking longer to overcome than originally expected. Currently the Bank is hoping to hit its inflation target in 2018.
Event: New Zealand GDP announcement
Date: Wednesday 21 December 2016 at 21:45 GMT
Markets affected: NZD/USD, AUD/NZD
Trending hashtags: #nzgdp, #nzd
With exports and domestic demand growing, New Zealand’s economy grew in Q2 by 0.9% which was only just below the 1.1% that analysts were predicting. Household demand in the second quarter rose 3.6% and exports experienced a stable 4% growth. Economists are optimistic for the Q3 results and are forecasting 0.8% a possible growth for the quarter and 3.7% for the year. If this holds true then many are not expecting the Reserve Bank of New Zealand to reduce interest rates further which currently sit at 1.75%.
 Event: US Durable Goods Orders
Date: Thursday 22 December 2016 at 13:30 GMT
Markets affected: EUR/USD,
Trending hashtags: #durablegoods, #usd
