Three Economic Indicators You Have To Watch This Week

Three important macroeconomic indicators are reporting next week. Estimize has recently started collecting estimates for international economic indicators to predict economic growth in major Asian and European countries. Check out the expectations below.

Brazil: Unemployment Rate (Reporting on Tuesday, Jan 31th)

The Brazilian unemployment rate has been relatively consistent for the last two months, staying at 11.8% in October and rose by 0.1% to 11.9% in November. As for December, the Estimize consensus is relatively pessimistic, with an increase of 0.4% in joblessness, to 12.3%. Brazil, with a population exceeding 206 million people, will end the year with a total of 12.6 million unemployed people, compared with 8.8 million in the year-ago period. According to IBGE, Brazil’s labor force, including unemployed people, totals 102.2 million people.

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Europe: GDP Growth (Reporting on Tuesday, Jan 31th)

This is the first time our Estimize community has reached an Estimize consensus for Euro-zone GDP growth for the last quarter in 2016. The analysts at Estimize predict that the GDP growth rate will remain the same 0.3% as from the third quarter. Europe will conclude 2016 with sluggish GDP growth, due to the announcement of Brexit and uncertain trading directions. Heading into 2017, economic prospects remain encouraging. The recent depreciation of the euro should bode well for the region’s exports. The extension of the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing program ensures that monetary conditions will remain supportive.

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Japan: Consumer Confidence (Reporting on Thursday, Feb 2nd)

Japan’s consumer confidence indicator for Dec. 2016 has been at a record-high since September, an impressive increase of 2.2 points from Nov. 2016 (40.9 points). Some of the major events that have led to such optimism in consumer confidence were Tokyo securing the right to host the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. As for January, the analysts at Estimize have predicted that the confidence indicator will come in at 41.6, a slight setback from December.

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