Monday, August 8: The 76th annual Sturgis Motorcycle rally, the world’s largest gathering of Harley Davidson enthusiasts, gets underway. Last year’s event drew a record 739,000 to the hog rally. Organizers expect about 500,000 to turn out for the 2016 festivities, a typical number for the event in the 6,000-person South Dakota town.
Tuesday, August 9: China’s National Bureau of Statistics releases producer and consumer inflation for China. A slowing pace of food price growth softened inflation in June to an annualized 1.9 percent, well below the 3 percent target. Meanwhile, producer prices are expected to fall for the 52nd consecutive month, as sluggish demand for base metals and low fuel costs keep prices lower at the factory gate.
Wednesday, August 10: Economic data releases in Brazil might get a bit more international attention than usual, thanks to the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in and around Rio de Janeiro. As gymnasts and swimmers take to competition, elsewhere in Rio the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica will be releasing July consumer price data. Economists expect prices to have fallen during the month after a stronger real and lowered spending by consumers battered by recession helped cool inflation.
Thursday, August 11: The Central Bank of Turkey announces June current account data. The country’s current account deficit has long been a bugbear to the country but has eased somewhat recently on the back of lower oil prices. While not a factor for the June report, in the coming months economists will be watching for any upset in Turkey’s trade balance following the July 15 military coup that failed to unseat President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Friday, August 12: Eurostat releases preliminary 2016 euro zone GDP, with rising expectations that the impact of a possible Brexit may have been less pronounced than previously feared. This past week the U.K.–based National Institute of Economic and Social Research released a report that sounded alarms over the potential regional fallout from deteriorating financial stability at Italian banks. In the same report, the organization noted that it had reduced full-year GDP expectations for the euro zone by an annualized 0.4 percent.
