The calendar from Australia contains some important releases this week including Reserve Bank of Australia minutes:
Tuesday 20 February 2018, 11.30 am Sydney time (0030 GMT))
- Minutes of the RBA February 2018 Monetary Policy Meeting of the Board
Wednesday 21 February 11.30 am local, 0030 GMT
- Wage Price Index for Q4 2017
- The RBA wants to see wages rising faster to spur consumer spending. The bank may be in luck, with flow through from hikes to the legal minimum wage expected to flow-through which can result in job losses as the price of labour rises ... but monthly employment data is showing jobs growth so perhaps not). This data release will be more closely watched than usual.
Also on Wednesday - Q4 construction work, which will feed through to GDP figures
- Expectations for this are not high, construction work is expected to have fallen .... but the data is being complicated by LNG facility import. I'll have more previews on this (and all the above) to come.
