What started with the pump misery over rising fuel prices, then with air travel cuts due to staff shortages will spread this week to train problems – in the country that gave you this mode of transport. A series of national rail strikes, and in London another strike on the metro system, are likely to shut down the network. The controversy focuses on wage demands and the impact on efficiency savings jobs that has been made more urgent by revenue cuts during the pandemic lockdown. Government ministers, who, as this article notes, are now effectively controlling all rail financing following changes made during the pandemic, refuse to speak directly to RMT, the main union calling for action. Whether this will have a major impact on Thursday’s two British midterm elections – this week’s main election news – is questionable as the poll already shows a double clash for the Conservatives – a “red wall” and a “blue wall”. constituency – amid anger over their leader and prime minister, Boris Johnson. The aviation industry will also be in the spotlight this week as the annual general meeting of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) takes place in Doha. The news here is unlikely to be very positive. Last October, Iata predicted that 2.3 billion people would fly in 2021 and 3.4 billion in 2022, up from 4.5 billion in 2019. Another international gathering this week will be the belated meeting of the Commonwealth leaders in Rwanda. The site will raise some awkward questions about Prince Charles, who will be attending on behalf of the Queen, given the UK’s agreement with the country to host British asylum seekers, a policy the heir to the throne had described as “disgusting”. according to a report in the Times. The week will conclude with German Chancellor Olaf Solz welcoming his G7 counterparts to a summit at the isolated Schloss Elmau castle in Bavaria, the same venue chosen by Angela Merkel’s predecessor in 2015. Highlights here, however, is India’s special guest, Narendra Modi, and if that helps the Western powers – Australia will do something similar during a state visit to India earlier this week – in the battle for allies to deal with the growing proximity between Russia and China.
Financial data
The surveys are the topic of this week with a series of market-leading index reports, Fed regional announcements in the US and Germany’s Ifo business confidence data. The highlight of the central bankers’ speeches – and there are some this week – will be Jay Powell’s semi-annual appearance before the Senate Banking, Housing and Civil Affairs Committee to give a monetary policy report. And in case you do not have enough data on the cost of living, we will also receive more inflation updates from Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom and Japan.
Companies
Speakers at the Consumer Goods Forum will include Alexandre Bompard, CEO of Carrefour © Loïc Venance / AFP / Getty Images
Cost of living and market trends will be the focus of discussion among global retail groups gathering in Dublin this week for the Consumer Goods Forum. The CEOs of Unilever, Coca-Cola, Carrefour, Tesco and Walmart are among those on the list of speakers. There are not many profit calendar announcements this week. FedEx will present data for the fourth quarter on Thursday, but this was biased last week, with the US delivery company silencing concerns about the economy when it announced an increased dividend and two new board members. Read the full calendar of the week here
