The Week Ahead: Week of 14 August (GMT+3)

Tuesday, 15 August, 15:30 – US Retail Sales (MoM) (Jul)

In May, US Retail Sales showed a 0.2% increase on a monthly basis, falling short of the anticipated 0.5%. Nevertheless, there’s a silver lining as May’s figures were revised upwards from 0.3% to 0.5%, hinting at resilient consumer behaviour. 

Wednesday, 16 August, 05:00 – NZ RBNZ Interest Rate Decision 

In July, the New Zealand dollar initially experienced an increase following the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s decision to halt rate hikes, but it gave up the majority of those gains in the following month. The country’s economy is undergoing further weakening after hitting 14-year high interest rates. While the goal of maintaining inflation between 1-3% remains a persistent challenge, market experts propose that the RBNZ might maintain its current rate hike stance until the year’s end.

Wednesday, 16 August, 09:00 – UK CPI (YoY) (Jul)

After making several adjustments to the rate hike increment, the UK’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) experienced a notable cooling to 7.9% from 8.7% in June. This could be seen as the BoE’s hiking cycle finally starting to take meaningful effect. 

Wednesday, 16 August, 15:30 – US Building Permits (Jul)

In June, building permits in the US declined to 1.441 million from the previous figure of 1.496 million. Although it exceeded market expectations of 1.440 million, the decrease in numbers indicates that homebuilders are still grappling with elevated mortgage rates and construction costs.