Economic Calendar - Currencies

In Australia, the core inflation rate tracks changes in prices that consumers pay for a basket of goods which excludes some volatile price items.

In Australia, the most important categories in the consumer price index are housing (22.3 percent of the total weight), food and non–alcoholic beverages (16.8 percent), recreation and culture (12.6 percent), transport (11.6 percent), furnishings, household equipment and services (9.1 percent), alcohol and tobacco (7.1 percent), health (5.3 percent) and insurance and financial services (5.1 percent). Clothing and footwear, education and communication account for remaining 10.2 percent of total weight.

The NAB monthly survey of business confidence is based on a telephone survey of around 600 small, medium and large size non-agricultural companies. The Survey measures the expectations of business conditions for the upcoming month and is a simple average of trading, profitability and employment indices, reported by respondents for their company. The indices are calculated by taking the difference between the percentage of respondents nominating good or very good, or a rise and those nominating poor or very poor, or a fall.

Inflation Rate MoM measures month over month change in the price of goods and services.

In South Africa, the Composite Leading Business Cycle Indicator examines the direction in which real economic activity is moving, in real time. It is calculated on the basis of the following components: building plans approved, new passenger vehicles sold, commodity price index for main export commodities, index of prices of all classes of shares traded on the JSE, job advertisements, volume of orders in manufacturing, real M1, average hours worked per factory worker in manufacturing, interest rate spread, composite leading business cycle indicator of the major trading-partner countries, business confidence index, gross operating surplus as a percentage of GDP. The index has a base value of 100 as of 2010.

In Singapore, the core inflation rate tracks changes in prices that consumers pay for a basket of goods excluding changes in the price of cars and accommodation, which are influenced more by government policies.

Inflation Rate MoM measures month over month change in the price of goods and services.

In Singapore, the most important categories in the consumer price index are housing (25 percent of total weight) and food (22 percent). The index also includes: transport (16 percent), education (7 percent), health (6 percent), communication (5 percent) and clothing and footwear (3 percent). Recreation, alcoholic beverages, tobacco and others account for the remaining 16 percent of total weight.

In Turkey, Capacity Utilization is a measure of how much of the economy's potential output is being used.

In the UK, public sector net borrowing excluding public sector banks (PSNB ex) measures the gap between revenue raised (current receipts) and total spending (current expenditure plus net investment (capital spending less capital receipts)). Public sector net borrowing (PSNB) is often referred to by commentators as “the deficit”.

In South Africa, the Composite Leading Business Cycle Indicator examines the direction in which real economic activity is moving, in real time. It is calculated on the basis of the following components: building plans approved, new passenger vehicles sold, commodity price index for main export commodities, index of prices of all classes of shares traded on the JSE, job advertisements, volume of orders in manufacturing, real M1, average hours worked per factory worker in manufacturing, interest rate spread, composite leading business cycle indicator of the major trading-partner countries, business confidence index, gross operating surplus as a percentage of GDP. The index has a base value of 100 as of 2010.

In Turkey, the Business Tendency Survey (BTS) compiles the assessments of the senior managers on the recent past, current situation and their expectations regarding the future course of business environment in the manufacturing industry. A score above 100 indicates an optimistic outlook to the economic activities while below 100 points to a pessimistic outlook.

In Germany, the IFO Business Climate Index measures entrepreneurs’ sentiment about current business situation and their expectations for the next 6 months. The survey is made by phone and covers 9,000 firms in manufacturing, the service sector, trade and construction. The Business Climate Balance is constructed as the difference between the percentage share of executives that are optimistic and the share that are pessimistic. This balance can take values between -100 (all responding firms assess their situation as poor and expect business to deteriorate) and +100 (all responding firms assessed their situation as good and expect an improvement in their business). For the calculation of the IFO Business Climate Index, the Balance is normalized to the average of a base year (currently 2015).

In South Africa, gold production accounts for 16 percent of total mining production.

In the United Kingdom, the Business Optimism Index is published by the Confederation of British Industry's in its Industrial Trends Survey. An average of 400 small, medium and large companies from the manufacturing sector is surveyed each quarter. The Questionnaire accesses the overall sentiment regarding general and export business situation, investment, capacity, order books, employment, output, stocks, prices competitiveness regarding domestic, EU and non-EU markets and innovation and training. For each assessment is computed a sub-index as the percentage of positive answers minus the percentage of negative answers. The composite index is then computed as the weighted average of the sub-indices. An Optimism Index of +100 indicates that all survey respondents are much more confident about future prospects, while -100 suggests that all survey respondents are much less confident about future prospects. An index level of 0 indicates neutrality.