GERMANY'S 'MUTTI' BOWS OUT Sunday's German election is a close call and stakes for Europe's biggest economy couldn't be higher. After 16 years of steady, centre-right leadership, Chancellor Angela Merkel will be stepping down. Polls suggest the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) will form [...]

CENTRALLY FOCUSED Several central banking big-hitters meet in coming days, with the U.S. Federal Reserve's Sept. 21-22 meeting topping the must-watch list. The timing of the Fed's U.S. tapering plans remains the key question and recent data suggests caution may be warranted: the [...]

WANTED: PRIME MINISTER In the wide-open contest to be Japan's next premier, hopefuls have until Friday to announce intentions. For now, it's a three-horse race: The favourite, COVID-19 vaccine minister Taro Kono, ex-foreign minister Fumio Kishida and ex-internal affairs minister Sanae Takaichi - [...]

EYES LIKE A HAWK The European Central Bank meeting ends on Thursday, and a deluge of recent comments from policy hawks suggest it is set for a lively debate. Euro area inflation has surged to a 10-year high at 3%. Markets [...]

NEW JOB! With almost two million new jobs created in the past two months, Friday's nonfarm payrolls data for August could prove key as investors assess just how close the Federal Reserve is to scaling back emergency stimulus. A Reuters poll forecast a [...]

TAPER TENSIONS Fronted by Jerome Powell, the great and good of the central banking world gather at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, from Thursday to Saturday. The big question for the Federal Reserve Chair: When is taper time? The Fed is expected to outline taper [...]

READY, STEADY, GO New Zealand's central bank meets on Wednesday and looks set to become the first major economy to lift interest rates since COVID-19 hit. Super-strong jobs data have cemented expectations of a hike, which would be New Zealand's first since mid-2014. [...]

INFLATION PALPITATIONS U.S. consumer price data out on Wednesday will provide some answers to one of the most pressing questions in world markets at the moment: how sustainable is the current surge in U.S. inflation? Last month’s jump of 0.9% was the strongest [...]

OUT OF SURPRISES? Is this year's sharp U.S. growth rebound losing momentum? A raft of economic data due in the world's biggest economy will provide clues. U.S. non-farm payrolls on Aug. 6 will offer a snapshot of July hiring. Economists polled by Reuters [...]

TALKING TAPER The U.S. Fed meets on Tuesday and Wednesday and looks set to debate when and how to kick off a bond taper, even as a surging Delta variant caseload revives economic risks from a pandemic many policymakers had hoped was drawing [...]