Plenty due from Australia today, building approvals, trade data, PMI, and of course RBA:
- AUD traders - RBA meets today, expected to leave the cash rate unchanged
- Poll time - what will the RBA do today? Hold, cut or (gasp!) hike?
Coming up:
2230GMT - AIG Performance of Manufacturing index for February, prior was 51.5
2230GMT - ANZ Roy Morgan Weekly Consumer Sentiment (week ended February 28), prior was 114.3
2300GMT - Corelogic RP Data House Price m/m change for February, prior was +0.9%
0030GMT - BoP Current Account balance for Q4, expected is -20.0bn, prior was -18.1bn. Also, the 'net exports as a % of GDP' for Q4, expected is 0.3% and prior was 1.5% also
Big, big current account deficits for Australia as the terms of trade have fallen hard (impacting heavily on export prices)
0030GMT - Building approvals for January
- For the m/m, expected is -3.0%, prior was 9.2 %
- For the y/y, expected is -8.5%, prior was -2.5%
January building approvals are usually an erratic data point. January holiday season in Australia sees approvals dip, with a lot of seasonal adjustment applied; this makes the data point subject to volatility and revisions in the future. The trend for approvals has turned lower and after last month's surprising jump a turn down this month is the median forecast.
0330GMT - Reserve Bank of Australia decision and statement (see links above)
