The Labour Department’s inflation reading Tuesday will inform the Federal Reserve on price pressures in the economy as the central bank confronts bank failures.

The inflation rate has cooled from a recent peak last June, but has remained stubbornly high. The consumer-price index, a closely watched measure of inflation, advanced 6.4% in January from a year earlier, just edging down from December’s 6.5% increase.

The Labour Department will release its February CPI report at 8:30 a.m. ET Tuesday.

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Japanese firms’ wage negotiations, known locally as the "shunto", are expected to result in the biggest round of salary hikes since 1997 with analysts predicting increases at or above 3%. 

While Prime Minister Kishida has insisted on a hike of 3%, 18 unions under the collective UA Zensen body, are wrangling for an average wage increase of 5.28% with employers. 

The vice chair of the Japan Research Institute noted that “Wage increases are gaining momentum across the board.” Along with inflation and labour shortages. 

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The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is not expected to affect the euro zone's banks, Greek central bank chief Yannis Stournaras said in a newspaper interview published on Tuesday.

"We don't see SVB (Silicon Valley Bank) having an impact on the euro zone's banks or the Greek ones," Stournaras, who sits on the ECB's 26-member Governing Council, told Kathimerini newspaper.

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Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt will announce plans for 12 new investment zones in his budget, pledging to “supercharge” growth across the UK through tax incentives and extra funding.

The zones will be clustered around research institutions such as universities and will aim to spur investment in areas like technology, life sciences and advanced manufacturing, the Treasury said in an e-mailed statement. Eight of the zones will be in England and the other four in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Hunt’s plans represent a downsizing of the policy as initially proposed by former Prime Minister Liz Truss. At the time of Truss’s mini-budget in September last year, which Hunt later junked to arrest a market slide, the government was in discussion with 38 local authorities about establishing investment zones.

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