All Eyes On Canada's Dodge (page 1 of 2)

BRC Retail Sales Monitor (FEB) (0:01 GMT, 19:01 EST)

Consensus: N/A
Previous: 3.4%

Consensus: No official estimates have been released on how the British Retail Consortium's (BRC) sales monitor will perform for the month of February. However, given February's drop in consumer confidence according to the GfK index, it is likely that growth in retail sales will be meager at best.

British consumers' willingness to purchase durable goods has been waning, which will have negative effect on sales growth. While spending figures do not indicate that the British economy will receive a push from consumer consumption any time soon, it appears that the Bank of England is unfazed by such pessimism. Ordinarily, the central bank would cut interest rates to spur some sort of spending momentum.

However, it is becoming increasingly likely that the BoE will leave rates unchanged in March on confidence that growth in the service and construction sectors will more than make up for weak spending.

Previous: In January, member-stores of the BRC saw a 3.4% increase in total sales from the same time a year ago. This was a considerably slower rate of increase than the previous month when total sales grew by 4.1%. Sales growth in the same store from year to year was even weaker, showing a mere 0.2% gain, which is the slowest rate of sales growth the BRC has registered since its inception 11 years ago.

Much of the drop in sales growth is attributed to shoppers' disillusionment after holiday season clearance sales came to an end. Food, clothing, and footwear purchases all declined from December. The bulk of sales in home and leisure goods came only as a result of heavy retailer discounting. Weak consumer expenditures in January are a continuation of last year's trend when spending became a drag on the economy, which dawdled along at its slowest pace in 13 years.

Swiss Unemployment Rate (FEB) (6:45 GMT, 1:45 EST)

Consensus: 3.8%
Previous: 3.9%

Consensus: For a second straight month, unemployment in Switzerland adjusted for seasonal swings is expected to register at 3.6%. Historically, this figure has stood considerably higher at 3.9%. As the Swiss economy continues to grow to meet massive foreign demand, sustained increases in unemployment could spur inflationary issues. The Swiss National Bank has already raised interest rates once in recent months to combat such pressure.

However, it appears that the Bank may have to continue tightening its policy to avoid inflation caused by employment growth in the face of economic expansion. Surveys conducted by recruitment agencies have revealed that nearly half of Swiss firms have vacancies waiting to be filled.

The information technology sector along with the construction and catering industries face particular labor shortages. As more and more Swiss people are employed to fill these vacancies, economists predict unemployment levels to fall to as low as 3.4% this year.

Previous: In January, the Swiss unemployment rate stood at 3.9%. On a seasonally adjusted basis, this was a new low of 3.6%. For the majority of last year, the Swiss jobless rate on a seasonally adjusted basis consistently came in at a tight range from 3.8% to 3.9%. Without adding large numbers of jobs, Swiss managers were able to increase production through higher levels of utilization.

As a result, little inflationary pressure was created by the labor market. This began to change towards the end of the year, however.