Economic Calendar - Currencies

In Australia, Dwelling Approvals MoM show the monthly change in the number of total dwelling units approved, including building activity carried out on existing buildings.

In Switzerland, the Retail sales report provides an aggregated measure of sales of retail goods and services over a specific time period. In Switzerland, Retail sales are seasonal, volatile and relatively important to the overall economy.

In Switzerland, the year-over-year change in Retail sales compares the aggregated sales of retail goods and services during a certain month to the same month a year ago.

The Composite Output Index is a weighted average of the Manufacturing Output Index and the Services Business Activity Index. The weights reflect the relative size of the manufacturing and service sectors according to official GDP data. The Composite Output Index may be referred to as the ‘Composite PMI’ but is not comparable with the headline manufacturing PMI figure.

The S&P Global Canada Services PMI is compiled by S&P Global from responses to questionnaires sent to a panel of around 400 service sector companies. The sectors covered include consumer (excluding retail), transport, information, communication, finance, insurance, real estate and business services. The panel is stratified by detailed sector and company workforce size, based on contributions to GDP. Survey responses indicate the direction of change compared to the previous month. The indices vary between 0 and 100, with a reading above 50 indicating an overall increase compared to the previous month, and below 50 an overall decrease. The headline figure is the Services Business Activity Index, which is a diffusion index calculated from a question that asks for changes in the volume of business activity compared with one month previously.

In the last few years, Brazil has been reporting trade surpluses, primarily due to high exports in the manufacturing industry (54 percent of total exports), mining (23 percent) and agricultural products (22 percent). Brazil's main imports are in the manufacturing industry (89 percent of total imports) with fuels and fertilizers comprising 18 percent of total imports. The biggest trade partners are: China (27 percent of total exports and 22 percent of total imports), the United States (11 percent of exports and 19 percent of imports), Argentina (5 percent of exports and 5 percent of imports). Others include: the Netherlands, Canada, Japan, Germany and Spain.

In Japan, Foreign Exchange Reserves are the foreign assets held or controlled by the country central bank. The reserves are made of gold or a specific currency. They can also be special drawing rights and marketable securities denominated in foreign currencies like treasury bills, government bonds, corporate bonds and equities and foreign currency loans.

The net data shows the difference between acquisition and disposition of long-term debt securities: a plus sign indicates net purchases of foreign securities by Japanese investors; a minus sign indicates net selling and inflows of funds into Japan. It excludes Bank of Japan.

Foreign Investments in Japanese Stocks refers to the net difference between inflow and outflow of investments in Japanese stock market by foreigners.