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It’s a big week for central banks. On Wednesday, we get the latest move from the Federal Reserve. The US central bank is expected to keep rates where they are for now. Then on Thursday, we get the first rate decision from the European Central Bank since Christine Lagarde took over as governor. She is conducting a wide-ranging review into the role of the central bank.
Elsewhere, on Friday, we get the latest quarterly Tankan surveys from Japan. These look at business conditions across both the manufacturing and the services sectors. They are likely to show that Japanese business activity slowed during the fourth quarter. However, more recent monthly data has hinted at an upturn in global manufacturing, so as research consultancy Capital Economics suggests, this quarter could mark the trough for Japanese business confidence before a recovery in 2020.