Key indicators this week (Week 8)

Monday 
- New Zealand retail sales
- Japan`s preliminary GDP
- Eurogroup meeting

Tuesday 
- Australian monetary policy meeting minutes
- UK CPI
- German ZEW economic sentiment
- GDT price index

Wednesday 
- Swiss National Bank Chairman speaks
- Japan`s monetary policy statement
- Bank of Japan`s press conference
- UK average earnings index
- UK claimant count change
- UK MPC official bank rate votes
- US building permits
- US PPI

Thursday 
- FOMC minutes
- US unemployment claims
- Philly Fed manufacturing index

Friday
- French flash manufacturing PMI
- German flash manufacturing PMI
- UK retail sales

UoM: Consumer sentiment down in February

The University of Michigan (UoM) preliminary survey showed that consumer sentiment dropped in February to 93.6. This was from an 11 year high of 98.1 in January.

The drop is largely attributed to the low oil prices which are now at a six year low.

Jobless claims increased in the US

The weekly unemployment claims was at 304 thousand, some 25 thousand more people filling for unemployment insurance compared to last week.

The report can be found here.

RBA speech

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) governor Glenn Stevens spoke to the House of Representatives Standing Committee today. The speech can be found here .

The main highlight of it is that rate cuts will not affect the Australian economy.

Retail sales missed estimates

January was a disappointing month for retail traders as the retail sales data missed estimates. Core retail sales maintained at  -0.9% compared to the -0.4% forecasted while retail sales stood at -0.8% versus the estimated -0.4%. The only good news is that retail sales was a tiny improvement compared to the drop in December which was -0.9%.

Bloomberg has a write up regarding this area.

UK inflation at a 14 year low, BoE to maintain rates

The inflation level in the UK has fallen terribly to 0.5%, a distant number from the optimum 2.0% needed by the Bank of England (BoE). In addition, the inflation level is expected to drop to 0 due to the low oil prices. As expected, Governor Mark Carney and his monetary policy committee (MPC) members cannot raise rates.

Interestingly enough, Mark Carney wrote a letter to the Finance Minister, George Osborne explaining why the UK is not experiencing deflation.

The inflation report can be found here.

Bank rates remain at 0.5% and stock of purchase assets at  £375 billion.

Jobs data red in Australia, highest unemployment rate in 13 years

The Australian jobs data is seeing red. Unemployment rate climbed to 6.4%, the highest level in 13 years as reported by The Guardian. The employment change also fell to -12.2 thousand, a massive drop compared to the previous period`s creation of 42.3 thousand new jobs.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has the full labour force report. 

Here is a graphical representation of the data, taken from the report: 

Eurogroup meeting: Greece unable to reach a deal with Euro

In the Eurogroup meeting, Greece was unable to reach a deal with the European Union regarding a bailout programme.

Since the left-wing party, Syriza took over the government last month, austerity measures were set to end.

According to CNBC, Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve Chair said that eventually Greece will have to leave the euro zone.

UK manufacturing production falls to 0.1%

The UK manufacturing production has taken a drop by declining to 0.1% in January, a large drop from the previous period`s 0.8% growth. This is largely attributed to the maintenance work done on the North Sea oil and gas line.

Prime Minister David Cameroon wants the UK economy to be more export oriented but weakness in the euro zone has left the economy reliant mostly on consumer demand remarked Reuters.

The key points in the report include:
- Total production output is estimated to have increased by 0.1% between Q3 2014 and Q4 2014. The largest contribution to the quarterly growth came from manufacturing, which increased by 0.2%.
- Total production output increased by 1.4% between 2013 and 2014. Of the four main sectors, manufacturing output was the only one to rise, increasing by 2.7%.
- Total production output is estimated to have increased by 0.5% in December 2014 compared with December 2013. Manufacturing output was the only main sector to rise, increasing by 2.4%.
- Total production output decreased by 0.2% between November 2014 and December 2014. The largest contribution to this decrease came from mining & quarrying, which decreased by 1.4%.
- Manufacturing output increased by 0.1% between November 2014 and December 2014. The main contributors to the increase were computer, electronic & optical products; the manufacture of transport equipment; and the manufacture of food products, beverages & tobacco.
- In Q4 2014, production and manufacturing were 10.5% and 5.1% respectively below their figures reached in the pre-downturn GDP peak in Q1 2008.
- The preliminary estimate of GDP, published on 27 January 2015, contained a forecasted decrease of 0.1% for production in Q4 2014. This release of data estimates that production increased by 0.1% between Q3 2014 and Q4 2014 and the impact on the previously published GDP estimate for Q4 2014 is minimal.

Head over here for the full report by the Office of National Statistics.

China`s CPI down to 0.8%

China`s consumer price index (CPI) dropped to 0.8% in January, and producer prices decelerated to the lowest level in five years. The tumble in commodity prices have pushed the inflation down while raising real interest rates.

Bloomberg mentioned that this signals more room for monetary easing.

For a graphical representative of the CPI and PPI numbers, head over to zerohedge.