After a rather slow week for economic news, this week promises to be a busy one on the data front, highlighted by a decision on U.S. interest rates.

RBC Financial says that the week’s main event will be Tuesday’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting on interest rates.

Most Fed watchers expect no move in policy. Although RBC suggests that the Fed’s commentary will be as interesting as ever. “It will be interesting to see if the Fed’s statement tempers its optimism a bit in a bid to get long-term yields back down before they hamper the budding recovery,” it says.

TD Bank suggests that the Fed may attempt to talk down yields in its post-meeting statement, “by focussing on the lingering risks of a further drop in inflation”. Looking well past the meeting, TD says it expects that the Fed will embark on a slow and gradual tightening cycle in the latter half of next year, moving rates up by 50 basis points by year end.

CIBC World Markets says that a rate cut would be “well justified” in the U.S. as a way to bring bond yields back down. “But Fed speakers, most notably Alan Greenspan, haven’t shown enough discomfort with the Treasuries sell-off to suggest that action is imminent, so look for the FOMC to leave the overnight rate unchanged,” it says.

It’s a heavy week for U.S. data. Following Tuesday’s rate meeting, June business inventories and July retail sales are out on Wednesday. Thursday brings June international trade, July producer prices and weekly unemployment claims. On Friday, the week wraps up with July CPI, real earnings, industrial production and preliminary August consumer sentiment.

CIBC predicts that the data will be mixed. “Retail spending got off to a brisk start to Q3, but details of the industrial production report will be a bit disappointing given the reliance on a utilities bounce to generate the growth. Trade data for June could come in worse than consensus, and if so, could represent a downward revision to the initial Q2 GDP estimate. We don’t expect any surprises in a moderate CPI gain with a tame underlying core rate.”

This week in Canada, housing starts are out on Monday, auto sales are out Wednesday, manufacturing shipments and international trade are reported on Thursday, and the July leading indicator is out on Friday.

“In Canada, the data will also be a good-news, bad-news story,” predicts CIBC. “The early spotlight will fall on Monday’s buoyant housing starts figures, but later in the week, attention will be drawn to still-weak figures on exports and manufacturing output. Those reports will cap a second quarter likely to show no growth in real GDP, and will continue to build the case for another Bank of Canada rate cut early next month.”

On the earnings front, this week is REIT week, with many real estate vehicles reporting. Canadian REIT reports on Monday.

Canadian Tire Corp. is due out Tuesday, as is Computer Sciences Corp., NAL Oil & Gas Trust and Randgold Resources.

Freehold Royalty Trust, IAMGOLD, Linamar, O&Y REIT, Residential Equities REIT, Shiningbank Energy Income Fund and Wajax report on Wednesday.

Thursday brings CAP REIT, H&R REIT, InnVest REIT and Open Text.

Advantage Energy Income Fund reports on Friday, as does Boardwalk Equities, Enerplus Resources Fund and Premium Brands Inc.