Economic Calendar - Currencies

In Switzerland, the unemployment rate measures the number of people actively looking for a job as a percentage of the labour force.

In Turkey, Foreign Exchange Reserves refer to gross foreign exchange reserves held or controlled by the country's central bank, excluding gold.

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 Mexico, interest rate decisions are taken by the Bank of Mexico (Banco de México). Starting January of 2008, Banco de México has adopted as an operating target the overnight interbank rate (tasa de fondeo bancario) instead of the level of commercial banks’ current account balances at the central bank (corto).

In Japan, Household Spending YoY refers to the annual change of consumption expenditures (on food, housing, utilities, furniture, clothing, health, education, transport, communication, leisure activities, etc.) in real terms for two-or-more-person households including agricultural, forestry and fisheries households.

In Japan, Household Spending MoM refers to the monthly change of consumption expenditures (on food, housing, utilities, furniture, clothing, health, education, transport, communication, leisure activities, etc.) in real terms for two-or-more-person households including agricultural, forestry and fisheries households.

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.