INFLATION numbers from the United States on Tuesday could be the final ingredient required to convince the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates next month.

    Earlier in November, a robust report on U.S. employment hardened expectations for the Fed’s first rate increase in nearly a decade and if prices are shown to be rising steadily those views will likely solidify.

    Minutes from the Fed’s October meeting will also be published, giving an insight into the Committee’s decision to remove a key sentence on global risks from its policy statement.

    “We have had a strong October jobs report and Fed Chair Janet Yellen herself referring to a December rate rise as a ‘live possibility’ for the first time,” said Chris Hare, economist at Investec.

    “The coming week should shed a little more light on the prospects for tightening this year.”

    Attacks by Islamist militants across Paris late Friday could see increased buying of U.S. Treasuries in the coming week as investors move assets from higher risk equities into a safe haven.

    Analysts do not see an impact on the Fed’s monetary policy at this point.

    “The knee-jerk reaction in other terrorist attacks over the last decade has been a rush to safety, including aggressive buying in the U.S. Treasury markets,” said Guy LeBas, chief fixed income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia.

    “I sincerely hope these attacks will prove short in duration and will abate in intensity, in which case the market reaction will likely only include a brief safety bid in Treasuries.”

    While most U.S. data have been relatively upbeat, retail sales rose less than expected in October, suggesting a slowdown in consumer spending that could temper expectations of a strong pickup in fourth-quarter economic growth.

    In the meantime, Britain’s Bank of England was once pegged as likely to be the first major central bank to tighten policy but prices fell again last month, data will probably show Tuesday.

    With inflation so far below its 2 percent target, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) won’t be raising its benchmark rate from a record low 0.5 percent until at least April, putting it several months behind the Fed.

    British retail sales numbers Thursday will offer clues as to how consumers are faring.

    “While inflation looks odds on to post its lowest rate since March 1960, we do not think this decline will worry the MPC too much, with weak price pressures driven largely by lower energy prices rather than domestic economic weakness,” wrote Ruth Miller at Capital Economics. (SD-Agencies)