Central banks watch: Fed officials including Janet Yellen in focus next week as ECB to meet and Romania to set rates

Fed officials including the chair Janet Yellen had been influential in the past week, and with many of them scheduled to speak in the coming week and nothing major listed on the rate decision calendar, the Fed communication and dollar reaction will continue to be in focus.

The vice chair Stanley Fisher will speak on Monday followed by Richmond Fed president Jeffrey Lacker, Atlanta Fed's Dennis Lockhart, Cleveland Fed's Loretta Mester and Kansas City Fed president Esther George on Tuesday.

San Francisco Fed president John Williams will deliver a speech on Wednesday, after which Lockhart will have his second opportunity in the week.

On Thursday, Minneapolis Fed's Narayana Kocherlakota will speak but all eyes on that day will be on Yellen, who will deliver the welcome address at the ninth biennial Federal Reserve System Community Development Research Conference. Another Fed speaker at the conference is Lael Brainard.

With the past week having failed to provide any visible clarity on the timing of the first US rate hike since 2006, the market will look for related cues in speeches scheduled for the upcoming week.

The Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen said late on 27 March that the US central bank is likely to hike rates this year itself even if the country did not meet the 2% inflation target.

"With continued improvement in economic conditions, an increase in the target range for that rate may well be warranted later this year," Yellen said at a monetary policy conference at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, as per a Reuters report.

The G7 meeting on Tuesday is another major event in next week's calendar with monetary policy and currency implications. On that day, Romania decides rates too.

The only major central bank meeting is Wednesday's European Central Bank meet but it does not have any monetary policy on its agenda.