Next Week’s Menu: August 15-21, 2026
August 14, 2026
Central Banks: Interest rate decisions will be announced Egypt, China, Indonesia, Sweden, Iceland and Jamaica. FOMC minutes get released on Wednesday, and central bankers with public speaking engagements in the period include Lagarde and Lane of the European Central Bank, Hauser of the Reserve Bank of Australia, and Sleijpen of the Swiss National Bank.
State Elections and a Special Anniversary: Primary elections will be held Tuesday in Florida, Alaska and Wyoming. I would be remiss not to cite the 55th anniversary on Saturday, August 15th of what arguably was the most fateful event shaping the international monetary system that exists now. With the D-Day allied landing only a month in the rear view mirror, economists and politicians met for three weeks in Bretton Woods NH defining a mutually beneficial post-war system of fixed dollar exchange rates. A key pillar of the Bretton Woods Agreement –direct convertibility of dollars into gold — was suspended unilaterally by former President Nixon on Sunday, August 15, 1971 after a week that saw United States run up an enormous bill of foreign currency debt that would take several years to repay. Two formal dollar devaluations ensued, the first in December 1971 and a second in February 1973. Neither delivered equilibrium to the dollar, and in the system of fixed dollar parities against other major currencies was abandoned in March 1973 for the current system of market-determined flexible rates. Coincidentally, tomorrow will also mark exactly one year since Russian President Putin and U.S. President Trump met in a two hour 45 minute summit in Anchorage Alaska. Despite red carpet treatment and Trump’s assertion of progress in several areas, no major accords ensued on Ukraine or any other matter. Trump has yet to take up Putin’s invitation after the meeting of a follow-up visit by Trump to Moscow.
Scheduled U.S. Economic Data Releases Next Week: Industrial production, capacity utilization, import prices, Philly Fed and Empire State manufacturing surveys, NAHB housing index, pending home sales, indices of leading and coincident economic indicators, Treasury-compiled capital flows, and the preliminary purchasing manager survey findings in manufacturing and service producing sectors. Weekly jobless insurance claims, energy inventories, chain store sales and mortgage applications.
Euroland Releases: Preliminary PMI results, ZEW survey of investor sentiment, current account, consumer prices, quarterly labor costs, and index of leading economic indicators.
Members of the Euro Area: German and French PMI’s. German, Slovenian, Estonian, Latvian, Spanish, and Irish producer prices. Dutch, Belgian and Slovenian consumer confidence. Irish and Spanish trade balances. French business confidence, Italian current account and Dutch unemployment. Austrian, Portuguese and Slovakian consumer prices.
U.K. and Switzerland: British labor market figures, CPI, PPI, consumer confidence, productivity, Rightmove house price index, retail sales, preliminary PMI results and public sector borrowing. Swiss trade balance and producer prices.
Eastern Europe: Czech, Polish and Russian producer prices. Polish and Bulgarian consumer prices. Polish industrial production.
Nordic Europe: GDP in Norway and Denmark. Danish consumer sentiment and Norwegian trade balance.
Japanese and Chinese Releases: Japanese GDP, CPI, trade balance, industrial production, capacity usage, tertiary index, PMI survey results, and machinery orders. Chinese home prices, industrial production, retail sales, fixed asset investment, unemployment, and foreign direct investment.
Other Asia: Indian PMI surveys and unemployment. Malaysian and Hong Kong CPI. Malaysian and Singaporean trade balances. Thai GDP and Indonesian current account.
Australia and New Zealand: Australian consumer confidence, wage inflation, preliminary PMI’s, and labor statistics.
South Africa and Turkey: South African retail sales and consumer prices. Turkish consumer confidence, business sentiment and capacity use.
Canada and Mexico: Canadian CPI, housing starts, retail sales and housing prices. Mexican retail sales and indices of leading and coincident economic indicators.
Copyright 2026, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved.
Tags: Economic Data Calendar
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