View our top six stories to look out for this week (13-17 November), plus our key company earnings schedule.

The week ahead: UK unemployment, plus eurozone, UK & US inflation

Market analyst David Madden discusses the major economic and corporate events for the week ahead, including China industrial production, UK unemployment and CPI inflation updates from the UK, US and eurozone.

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Is China’s economy just cruising along? 
Tuesday: China releases industrial production, fixed asset investment and retail sales figures this week. The world’s second-largest economy has moved down a gear in terms of growth, but is still expanding at a rate that is unheard of in the west. Beijing claims it should achieve its target of 6.5% growth this year, and traders will be examining the various sectors to see how its economy is performing. 

Soft sterling proves costly for UK consumers 
Tuesday: The weakness in the pound since the Bank of England’s (BoE) interest-rate cut in August 2016 has led to imported inflation (when import costs rise due to a decline in the domestic currency). The consumer price index (CPI) rate is running at 3% ahead of Tuesday’s update, well over the 2% target, and last week’s dovish rate-hike from the BoE is likely to keep the cost of living high for some time to come. 

US CPI tipped to hold steady 
Wednesday: Last month US CPI jumped to 2.2% from 1.9%, but the core inflation rate was 1.7%. The gap between the two is down to an increase in energy prices in recent months. That being said, US demand is at a respectable level, and with average earnings broadly rising over the past few months, we could see underlying demand tick higher too. 

Can Royal Mail deliver the goods?
Thursday: Royal Mail are benefiting from an improvement to their computer systems, which has reduced the sorting time of parcels. A more efficient parcel service is needed to make up for the dip in the number of letters being sent. Last year the firm managed to deliver a double-digit rise in profit, while revenue was fractionally higher. Will this trend continue when the company releases its half-year results?

Rising commercial property prices boost British Land 
Thursday: The real estate investment trust (REIT) is enjoying higher profits and net asset valuations (NAV) as the commercial property sector continues to grow. Office space in London is still in serious demand as technology and finance companies continue to flock to the capital. This should bode well for British Land’s results this week.

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Company announcements are subject to change. All the events listed above were correct at the time of writing.

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