PREVIOUS TRADING DAY EVENTS 18 April 2023

Announcements 

U.K. Claimant Count Change the change in the number of people claiming unemploymentrelated benefits during the previous month was reported at 28.2K, way higher than expected. The Average Earnings Index of 3my, the change in the price businesses and the government pay for labour including bonuses, was reported at 5.9, which was higher than expected.

According to the Office for National Statistics ONS, the unemployment rate edged up to 3.8 its highest since the second quarter of 2022. There is now more than an 80 chance of the Bank of England BoE raising interest rates to 4.5 in May to help bring down inflation, which was above 10 in February.

Source httpswww.reuters.comworldukukpaygrowthpicksupthreemonthsfebruary20230418

According to the reported figures for the CPI changes, specifically Canadas monthly CPI change, inflation slows to 0.5. The Consumer Price Index rose 4.3 in March from last year; that is the lowest headline number since August 2021, backing interestrate pause decisions. That matched market expectations.

A drop in energy prices had an impact on keeping the consumer price index low.

While base effects helped to pull headline inflation sharply lower in March, there were also some encouraging signs in core inflation, as the average threemonth annualised gain in CPItrim and CPImedian fell to a 16month low. We continue to expect headline inflation to fall faster than the Bank of Canada…