Warren Hogan, ANZ co-head of Australian economics and interest rates research, believes that upward revisions to inflation forecasts will be necessary.

"In its last Statement on Monetary Policy, the RBA expected core inflation to be 3.75% in June 2008 and falling to 3.5% in December 2008. Unless the RBA expects core inflation to come in at 0.5% in Q2, it will be forced to revise up its short-term track for inflation. At the very least, the RBA will have to nudge up the June 2008 forecast to 4% and the December 2008 forecast to 3.75%. But these annual figures imply an expectation of core inflation of only around 0.8% a quarter for the rest of 2008 which seems unlikely," he wrote in a research note to clients.

Early on Friday, Japan's leading economic index for March is scheduled to be released. It is expected to rise 20.0% following a 54.5% rise in February. The preliminary reading of the Japanese coincident index for March will also be released. Expectations are for a rise of 33.3% following February's increase of 70.0%.

All times EDT

Thursday

19:50 JN Official Reserve Assets April Prior: $1015.6B

21:30 AU Reserve Bank Quarterly Monetary Policy Statement

Friday

1:00 JN Leading Economic Index March Preliminary Exp: +20.0% Prior: +54.5%

1:00 JN Coincident Index March Preliminary Exp: +33.3% Prior: +70.0%

By Ryan Szporer, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , edited by Cristina Markham, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it