THE WEEK AHEAD
AFTER a slew of central bank monetary policy decisions last week, this week is dominated by consumer-focused data.
In the UK, we’ll get the British Retail Consortium’s March figures and the RICS’ house price balance for last month at midnight tomorrow. Thursday at midnight sees the release of the March Nationwide consumer confidence survey.
It is hoped that trade figures for February will start to reflect the effect of a weaker pound but with a stagnant Eurozone, markets may be disappointed.
Across the Atlantic, Wednesday is a busy day. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke will testify before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress and the Fed will also publish its regular market update, the Beige Book.
There is also US March inflation data published on Wednesday at 1.30pm UK time.
German inflation data is out tomorrow at 7am.