Economic calendar in Asia 21 February 2025 – Fed, RBA speakers, Japan inflation data

At 2200 GMT /1700 US Eastern time Federal Reserve Board Governor Adriana Kugler speaks on “Navigating Inflation Waves While Riding on the Phillips Curve” before the 2025 Whittington Lecture event hosted by Georgetown University.

Any comments on inflation, let alone a whole speech, are going to grab the market’s attention.

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More central bank speak follows. Michele Bullock, Governor; Andrew Hauser, Deputy Governor; Sarah Hunter, Assistant Governor (Economic); and Brad Jones, Assistant Governor (Financial System) will all appear before the Australian parliament’s House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics

• at 9.30 am Canberra time
• 2230 GMT
• 1730 US Eastern time

Andrew Hauser, Deputy Governor, spoke yesterday. Link to the post here. I noted separately that:

• While most of comments were erring toward the ‘data dependence’ view on forward guidance and that inflation is still a challenge, he did say, which I thought was very instructive, that the Bank’s modelling prior to Tuesday’s rate cut was that inflation should decline even if rates were held steady. A wee more dovish, or at least less hawkish, than I thought he would be.

That’s a bit of bombshell IMO. I wasn’t expecting any follow up RBA rate cuts for maybe a quarter. Hauser’s comment has me rethinking, sooner maybe?

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And the fun doesn’t stop there. January inflation data from Japan is due today. The Tokyo-area inflation (viewed as a bit of a heads-up to the national figure) showed no let up in price pressure:

• Core inflation in Tokyo climbed to 2.5%, its fastest annual increase in nearly a year

The core measure for national CPI is expected to have climbed in January.

• This snapshot from the ForexLive economic data calendar, access it here.
• The times in the left-most column are GMT.
• The numbers in the right-most column are the ‘prior’ (previous month/quarter as the case may be) result. The number in the column next to that, where there is a number, is the consensus median expected.
• I’ve noted data for New Zealand and Australia with text as the similarity of the little flags can sometimes be confusing.

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.