OANDA Senior Market Analyst Kelvin Wong joins Jonny Hart to discuss this week’s key economic data and events. The primary focus will be on the US CPI data for February out on Tuesday (12 March) and the preliminary Wage Negotiations result for FY 2024/2025 from Japan’s largest union group, Rengo on Friday (15 March).

The consensus is calling for a moderation of the US inflationary trend where the core-CPI data for February is Expected to slow down slightly to 3.7% y/y from 3.9% y/y in January. Over in Japan, wages are expected to increase on an average of 3.85% annualized for FY 2024/2025, the largest jump since 1993. If it turns out as expected, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) will have enough evidence to potentially put an imminent end to short-term negative interest rates in Japan soon; likely to occur in March or April.