British government bond investors will look to producer prices, manufacturing output and export data for trading direction this week after enjoying a strong boost from extremely weak US jobs numbers on Friday.
The Bank of England kept borrowing costs unchanged at 4.0 percent this week, but economists suspect more hikes are just a matter of time because of increasing signs of domestic economic recovery.
The fresh data will give clues as to how soon the central bank might tighten again - perhaps as soon as April.
Despite lingering weakness in US jobs growth which could hold the Federal Reserve back from pulling its rate trigger, most analysts still believe the next UK hike would be in May given the strength of consumer spending and the housing market.
The short sterling market has already priced in at least another 25 basis point hike by June plus an additional quarter point increase by the end of the year.
But some City pundits believe the market might be a bit ahead of itself.
"We only expect one more hike this year. We don't think interest rates are going to rise as much as the market has expected because of the high degree of indebtedness in the consumer and the weakness in the European economy," said James Carrick, an economist at ABN Amro.
"We are more pessimistic about the European economy than the Bank of England," he said.
DATA DOESN'T HELP: Gilts have been remarkably resilient this week, thanks to the surprisingly weak US jobs data which prompted investors to dramatically scale back rate hike expectations in the US
Non-farm payrolls rose just 21,000 in February, well below forecasts of a 125,000 gain. January's jobs result was revised down to 97,000 from 112,000. The weaker-than-expected figures helped to offset almost every bond-negative factor that had depressed British government bonds this week.
Analysts expect a mixed bag of data this week.
They predicted manufacturing output probably rose in January after an unexpected fall in December as key surveys this month pointed to expansion in the hard-pressed sector.
For example, the Confederation of British Industry monthly survey saw the expected output balance jump to +21 in January from +5 in December - its best reading since July 1997.
A Reuters survey forecast a 0.5 percent month-on-month gain in manufacturing output. The number will be published at 0930 GMT on Tuesday.
The producer price data on Monday is likely to show factory gate price inflation remained subdued in February as sterling's strength has helped to contain imported costs.
Economists polled by Reuters expect the trade balance data due on Tuesday to show the deficit remained steady at 4.2 billion pounds in January.
They predict the trade gap with Europe to stay near its record of 2.7 billion pounds.
"Unfortunately for UK manufacturers, this is likely to remain the case until we see more evidence of a recovery in euro zone domestic demand, which could take at least until the summer," said David Page, economist at Investec.
The gilt market normally pays little attention to trade data because British growth is largely driven by domestic demand.