With the Bank of England previously signaling that interest rates will most likely rise at the monetary policy meeting in May, this week the economic data from the UK is likely to offer more insights into the validity of the BoE’s forward guidance.

Inflation and wage growth which are two key elements for the Bank of England will be released this week.

Starting the week, the UK’s unemployment report data will be released.

According to the economists polled, the UK’s unemployment rate is expected to remain steady at 4.3%. However, investors will be focusing on the wage growth data.

Estimates show that economists believe that wages including bonuses might have increased 3.0% on the year ending March 2018.

This marks a slight increase from 2.8% previously.

The average earnings excluding bonuses are expected to rise 2.8% which marks a strong increase from 2.6% that was seen previously.

Later in the week, inflation data will be coming out.

Economists expect that consumer prices continued to cool with the inflation rate expected at 2.7%, unchanged from the previous month.

Core CPI is however expected to rise 2.5%, up from 2.4% that was seen previously.