The markets are watching recent developments between China and the United States amid the possibility of a trade war after the Trump Administration announced on Thursday that it had signed a presidential decree to impose tariffs up to $ 60 billion a year on Chinese imports.
The US Federal Reserve disappointed market expectations last week despite raising interest rates as expected but kept the rate hike expectations for 2018 unchanged and raised them in 2019 to three times.
Here are the highlights of the economic agenda this week:
Growth data in the United States
The US growth data is due to be released on Wednesday, and GDP is expected to grow by 2.7% on yearly basis in the fourth quarter of 2017. The US economy grew by 3.2% in the third quarter of the same year.
Also, the Fed's preferred inflation measure, Core Personal Consumption Spending, is expected to grow by 1.5% in February, the same as in January.
Growth data in the UK
UK growth data will be released on Thursday, and GDP is expected to grow by 1.5% in the fourth quarter of 2017, while preliminary readings have indicated a 1.4% growth. Also focus will be on Brexit negotiations as it enters key phases. Despite the weak growth of the British economy, it is better than gloomy expectations that accompanied the Brexit vote in 2016.
German inflation data
The preliminary reading of Germany's inflation data for March will be released. The harmonized consumer price index is expected to rise by 1.5%, after growing by 1.2% in February. The data is a measure of how high prices are in the euro area, and initial inflation data will be released also in France, Italy and Spain.
Japanese inflation data
Core inflation data will be released in Tokyo in March and the core CPI is expected to rise by 0.9%, the same as in February.
