Along with economic data from Australia we've got the RBA too

I know! The fun never stops, right?

2230GMT - AiG Performance of Construction PMI for January

  • Or, the 'Construction' PMI for short
  • prior was 46.8
  • Earlier this week we got the manufacturing and services PMIs
  • The construction PMI does not tend to much of an immediate FX market mover

0030GMT brings us two big releases - Retail Sales for December, and the Reserve Bank of Australia's 'Statement on Monetary Policy'

Retail Sales m/m

  • expected is 0.4% and prior also 0.4%
  • This indicator has been positive in previous months, non-food retail picking up
  • Consumer sentiment was also picking up during the survey period
  • Lower petrol prices have given a boost to discretionary spending
  • Having said this the danger side for this release is a miss, which should see an AUD dip. Which I expect will run into buyers quite quickly (as long as 'risk' behaves itself)

Reserve Bank of Australia Statement on Monetary Policy

  • The Statement is issued four times a year
  • It sets out the Bank's assessment of current economic conditions (domestic and international) and outlooks for Australian inflation and GDP growth
  • In November the Statement's outlook for unemployment was 6 to 6.25% over the following 12 months. Given the solid run of employment data numbers its likely the bank will shade this forecast a little lower, perhaps into the 5.75% to 6% range.
  • Forecasts for GDP growth are expected to remain unchanged, while the inflation forecasts are a bit of wild card, I expect they may be lowered slightly for the coming year (with a caveat inserted on oil price developments) but unchanged thereafter.

more to come

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Its not all Australia, we've also got some Japanese data, but none that is likely to be of much immediate import for the FX market.