Weekly Outlook

SINGAPORE

    Singapore’s calendar will be most busy this week for May with the April CPI data (23 May) and April industrial production (26 May) while the final print for 1Q 2017 GDP (25 May) is expected to be revised higher to 2.7-2.8% (from the prelim 2.5%).

    KEY ASIAN ECONOMIES

    Friday (19 May) focus will be on Malaysia’s 1Q 2017 GDP & Iran’s elections while South Korea will give the first indication for May trade outlook with release of the first 20 days export and import data on Sunday (21 May). After a busy week with the “Belt and Road: 2017 Summit” in Beijing (14-15 May) and several key April data, things for China will wind down this week with just April leading index (22 May) and April industrial profits of note (Sat, 27 May). But the key data focus in Asia will be the monetary policy decisions of Bank of Thailand (24 May) and Bank of Korea (25 May) although no change is expected from both. There is a lot of trade-related data this week including Taiwan’s April export orders (22 May), New Zealand April trade (24 May), Hong Kong April trade (25 May), and Vietnam May trade balance (25-31 May). Singapore (25 May) and Taiwan (26 May) will report their final 1Q GDP numbers this coming week. There will be several Reserve Bank of Australia officials speaking in public forums throughout this week. Indonesian market will be closed on 25 May (Thursday) for a public holiday.

    US AND DEVELOPED ECONOMIES

    Geo-political and international events will be the focus of developed economies this week as the data docket takes a backseat. Amidst the political turmoil in Washington, US President Trump will embark on his first overseas trip as the US president with a very packed itinerary. The first country to receive him will be Saudi Arabia (20-21 May), and then to Israel (22-23 May), Italy and the Vatican (24 May), Belgium (NATO, 24-25 May) and back to Italy (G7 Summit, 26-27 May). The EU/Eurozone Finance Ministers meeting will take place in Belgium (22 May) followed by the 28th NATO Summit also in Belgium (24-25 May) of which Trump and German Chancellor Merkel will attend. Finally, it will be the 43rd G7 Leaders’ Summit in Italy (26-27 May). Bank of Canada (24 May) is the only G7 central bank with a monetary policy decision this week while the focus of the Fed Reserve is the 2-3 May 2017 FOMC minutes (on 25 May, 2am SG time). We have a few senior Fed Reserve officials (voters in 2017 FOMC such as Harker, Evans, Kashkari and Kaplan) & BOJ Gov Kuroda (24 and 27 May) speaking in public forums but FOMC Chair Yellen and Vice Chair Fischer are again not listed on any speaking event yet. The key data from the G7 economies this week is likely the 1Q 2017 GDP from Germany (f) (23 May) and Japan April trade data (22 May) and April CPI (26 May), and the May prelim manufacturing & services PMI surveys from the developed economies including Eurozone, US and Japan (24 May). The US data docket includes April trade balance (25 May), April durable goods orders (26 May) and housing data (23 & 24 May). This is a full working week for developed markets but US and UK will end the week with a long weekend for their respective holidays on 29 May 2017 (Monday).