Last week's overview, this week's key events

Source: Dukascopy Bank SA
The previous week brought plethora of interesting news from the world leading economies. The North America surprised markets to the upside with the latest GDP numbers, as the U.S. economy expanded a phenomenal 4.0% in the second quarter following a –2.9% contraction in the first three months of the year, while Canada saw its growth increasing at the 0.4% pace, more than initially expected. Unfortunately, the positive data out of the world's number one economy was offset by a softer employment figures, with the jobless rate inching up to 6.2%. Nevertheless, the Federal Reserve remains on course of tapering, as it announced it would wind down its purchases of mortgage and Treasury bonds to $25 billion a month.
Meanwhile, on another side of the Atlantic, European jobless rate fell to 11.5% in June, hitting the lowest since September 2012 and from 11.6% a month earlier. While this data brought some optimism to the economic prospects of the single currency region, inflation data continues to disappoint and to spike fears into economists. The cost of living in the Eurozone climbed just 0.4% in July, following a 0.5% increase in June. This is considerably below the middle-point of the ECB's 2% inflation, the indicator is still in the "danger zone" and posing a threat of deflation. Anaemic growth, stubbornly high unemployment and persistently low inflation are all constantly warning about the Japan-style stagflation and only reinforce the view the ECB will have to stick to the U.S-style quantitative easing programme. All in all, the EUR/USD was trading in a tight range during the previous week, hovering around the 1.34 mark.
As to the U.K., the country that has been showing the most brilliant economic performance among developed nations, a set of measures aimed at cooling demand and prices in the housing market is finally working. Thus, this year the Bank of England faces less pressure concerning the housing market as in 2013. However, the International Monetary Fund added a fly in the ointment, which believes that U.K. currency is overvalued by 5-10%.
This week all eyes will turn to the South Pacific countries, as the RBA will release its Rate and Monetary Policy Statements, while New Zealand will either confirm or deny the expected fall in unemployment. The ECB and BoJ will conduct press conferences, where central bankers may shed some light on future monetary policy actions.

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