Afghanistan has two upcoming anniversaries. Friday is Independence Day, commemorating the signing of the Treaty of Rawalpindi in 1919, in which Britain granted Afghanistan the right to self-determination over its foreign affairs. Most will, however, be more concerned about Monday, which marks a year since the Taliban regained control.
This week also begins with the 75th anniversary of Britain’s withdrawal from the Indian subcontinent, marking the division of India and Pakistan. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the country from the historic Red Fort in Delhi with a possible focus on troubles in Kashmir, the country’s only Muslim-majority country.
For British students, now is all as students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland on Thursday receive emails and envelopes with their exam results and A-levels. The quest to accept and find college places through the clearing process will then begin in earnest.
As with Advanced Advanced test scores announced for Scottish schoolchildren last week, A-level results are expected to be down from last year, but could rise in pre-pandemic years. Examinations body AQA said tests will be more broadly classified to reflect a return to normal testing conditions.
The UK’s summer of discontent will be marked by another national rail strike this week, made worse by a general walkout across London’s public transport networks. Next Sunday, more than 1,900 workers at Britain’s largest container port of Felixstowe are set to strike, plus we are one week away from a strike by crime lawyers in courts in England and Wales with no immediate solution.
We are going to have a step forward in Nasa’s Artemis space program. The mission aims to send the first ethnic minority woman and astronaut to the Moon, prepare for a long-term presence on the Moon, and provide a stepping stone to sending humans to Mars. Nasa plans to live stream the Artemis 1 rocket to the launch pad on Wednesday with the aim of completing the takeoff by the end of the month.
Economic data
Inflation watchers will be busy this week with updates from the EU, Japan and Canada, plus, on Wednesday, the release of minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s latest meeting. will probably show some signs that the Fed is willing to tighten monetary policy.
It will also be a busy week for UK economic news with figures on employment, inflation, productivity, retail sales, consumer confidence and house prices. All are likely to obtain comment on the state of the UK.
Companies
This week, we’ll wrap up the current reporting season with results from a wide range of retailers that are entirely online or already heavily profiting from e-commerce, notably Walmart on Tuesday, Target and Tencent a day later, and AO World on Thursday.
AO World is trying transform its business model From growing sales to building and maintaining profit margins. The problem for retailers like us during an economic downturn will be maintaining enough demand for sales.
Read the calendar a week in advance here.
