DeskTerminal's economic calendar tracks upcoming and recently released economic events — including interest rate decisions, CPI (inflation) releases, Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP), GDP data, PMI reports, retail sales, and central bank speeches — sourced from official government and central bank data. A live countdown appears for any event in its final 10 minutes before release, switching to the real number within seconds of publication. If you've heard traders say "don't trade during news" or "watch out for news time," this is the calendar they mean — it shows exactly when those high-impact releases happen. Filter by impact level or country, search for a specific event, or jump to today, this week, next week, or any custom date using Navigation and Jump to date above the table.
Central banks set interest rates based on inflation (CPI) and employment (NFP) data, and interest rate expectations are one of the biggest drivers of currency strength. That's why high-impact releases like the U.S. Federal Reserve's rate decisions or the monthly Non-Farm Payrolls report can move EUR/USD, gold (XAUUSD), and major stock indices within seconds of release. Markets don't react to the number itself so much as the gap between it and what was forecast — a CPI print that comes in hotter than expected can move a currency pair more in ten seconds than an entire ordinary trading day, because it forces traders to instantly reprice their expectations for the next central bank meeting.
Not every release carries equal weight. GDP and PMI figures shape the medium-term growth outlook for a currency, retail sales and employment data offer a monthly pulse on consumer and labor strength, and central bank speeches can shift expectations even without new data, simply by changing the tone policymakers use. Reading the calendar alongside the actual, forecast, and previous columns — not just the headline event name — is what turns a list of releases into a genuine trading edge.
Each row shows the release date and time in your local timezone, the currency affected, an impact rating (low, medium, or high), and the actual, forecast, and previous values once available. Tap or click any event to see what the indicator measures, its usual effect on the currency, and why traders watch it. Click the clock icon at the end of the row to see a full year of that event's real past releases, so you can judge a new number against its own recent history rather than in isolation.
A genuine, numerical prediction of Non-Farm Payrolls before it's released isn't something any site can honestly offer — including this one. NFP is famously one of the hardest economic figures to forecast, and even professional economists surveyed for the official consensus are frequently off by tens of thousands of jobs. Any site claiming to know the exact number in advance is guessing, not forecasting.
What genuinely is reliable, and what this calendar gives you for free: the real, live consensus forecast — the average estimate from the economists Trading Economics surveys ahead of each release — shown directly in the Forecast column next to NFP the moment it's published. That number reflects real, current analyst positioning, not a guess invented for this page. Alongside it, click the 🕒 history icon on the NFP row to see the real actual, forecast, and previous figures from every NFP release over the past year — genuine historical pattern, not speculation, to help you judge how forecasts have tracked reality recently.
An economic calendar is a schedule of upcoming and released economic data — like inflation reports, interest rate decisions, and employment figures — published by governments and central banks. Traders use it to anticipate market volatility around these releases.
Impact level indicates how much a release typically moves markets. High-impact events (like interest rate decisions or NFP) often cause significant, fast price moves in forex, gold, and stocks. Medium-impact events cause moderate reactions, and low-impact events usually have minimal market effect.
Many traders avoid opening new positions in the minutes immediately before and after a high-impact release, since spreads widen and prices can spike unpredictably in both directions. This is often referred to as "news time" or "trading around news" — checking the calendar beforehand helps you know when that volatility window is coming.
NFP (Non-Farm Payrolls) is a U.S. employment report showing the change in jobs excluding the farming sector, released monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, typically on the first Friday of the month. It's one of the most market-moving events for forex and gold.
CPI (Consumer Price Index) measures inflation by tracking the average price change of a basket of goods and services. It moves forex markets because central banks use inflation data to set interest rates, and interest rate expectations are a primary driver of currency values.
"Previous" is the figure from the last time this event was released, "forecast" is the consensus estimate from economists surveyed beforehand, and "actual" is the real number once it's published. The market reaction is usually driven by the gap between actual and forecast, not the actual number alone — a result that beats forecast is generally read as stronger for that currency, and a miss as weaker, though the exact effect depends on the specific indicator.
Data refreshes automatically every 3 minutes. For any event within its final 10 minutes before release, a live countdown appears, and the page switches to checking every 10 seconds — so the real number typically replaces the countdown within seconds of the official release, not minutes.
Yes — click the clock icon at the end of any event's row to open a table of that event's real releases over the past year, including the actual, forecast, and previous values from each past occurrence.
Yes, DeskTerminal's economic calendar is completely free, with no account or sign-up required, including detailed explanations and a full year of history for each event.
No source can honestly predict NFP's exact number before release — including economists themselves, who are frequently off by a wide margin. What's genuinely useful is the live consensus forecast shown in this calendar's Forecast column, plus the real past-year history available by clicking the 🕒 icon on the NFP row — both grounded in real data, not speculation.
NFP is released at 8:30 AM Eastern Time (US), on the first Friday of each month in most cases — this calendar automatically converts that to your own local timezone, and shows a live countdown once the release is within 10 minutes.
Check live prices on the Market page, work out your trade risk with the Trade Calculator, or catch up on News alongside this calendar.