Forex economic calendar and news times in IST

Updated 30 September 2026

What an economic calendar is, and why it matters in India

An economic calendar lists the data releases and central bank decisions scheduled for the day and the week ahead. Jobs numbers, inflation, interest rate decisions, growth figures: each one lands at a fixed time, and each one can move currencies and gold within seconds.

You can't predict the number. What the calendar gives you is the time. Knowing that US inflation comes out at 6:00 PM tonight is the difference between planning for a fast move and finding your stop loss taken by one.

For traders in India this matters more than it does in most places. The biggest releases come from the US, and they arrive in the Indian evening, which is exactly when most part-time traders are at their screens after work. A lot of the sudden moves that seem to come from nowhere at 6:00 PM or 7:00 PM IST are simply a US data release that wasn't on the trader's radar.

How to read the calendar

Each row is one scheduled release: the time, the country, the name of the data or decision, and how important it usually is. Three numbers sit next to it:

• Forecast: what economists expect. Before the release, the market is already priced for something close to this number.
• Previous: last month's or last quarter's figure. It's sometimes revised when the new number comes out, and a big revision can move price on its own.
• Actual: filled in the moment the data is published.

Price doesn't react to whether a number is "good" or "bad". It reacts to the surprise, the gap between actual and forecast. A strong jobs report that everyone expected can do almost nothing, while a small miss nobody saw coming can move gold sharply within a minute.

Here's how that works with an example. Say economists expect US consumer prices to rise 0.3% on the month, and the actual figure comes in at 0.5%. Higher inflation makes it more likely the Fed keeps interest rates high. The dollar often rises on that, and gold, which pays no interest, often falls. If the figure came in at 0.1% instead, you'd tend to see the opposite. "Often" is the key word: the market also weighs other news, and sometimes the first move reverses within minutes.

Some releases carry several numbers at once, and they can point in different directions. The US jobs report, for instance, comes with the number of jobs added, the unemployment rate and wage growth. On a day when jobs beat the forecast but wages miss, the first spike can go one way and the real move the other, once traders decide which number matters more.

High, medium and low impact

Every calendar rates events by how much they tend to move the market. The calendar on this page shows medium and high-impact events only, because low-impact releases rarely matter for a trade. Its times follow your device's own time zone, so on a phone or computer set to Indian time they're already in IST.

• High impact: jobs reports, inflation, central bank decisions, the first estimate of GDP. Expect wider spreads and fast, large moves in the currency involved and often in gold.
• Medium impact: business surveys, retail sales, speeches by central bankers. They move the currency concerned, but rarely the whole market.
• Low impact: smaller releases that rarely move price on their own.

Treat the rating as a starting point, not a rule. What matters changes with the times. When inflation is the Fed's biggest worry, CPI can move the market more than the jobs report. When the economy looks shaky, jobs data can take over again. A "medium" release on the exact currency you're trading deserves more attention than a "high" one somewhere else.

What the main US releases measure

Gold and most major pairs are priced against the US dollar, so US data moves them more than anything else. This is what each of the big releases actually tells the market:

Outside the US, the big ones are the other central banks: the ECB for EURUSD, the Bank of England for GBP pairs, the Bank of Japan for yen pairs, the RBA and Bank of Canada for AUD and CAD, and the RBI for USDINR. Each country's own inflation and jobs numbers matter for its currency too.

News times in IST, summer and winter

India doesn't change its clocks, but the US, UK, Europe, Canada and Australia do. The same release therefore lands in India at different times depending on the season over there. The table shows both.

"Summer time" means daylight saving time in that country: roughly March to early November in the US and Canada, and late March to late October in the UK and Europe. Release times can move for holidays and special announcements, so confirm the day and time in the calendar above.

Australia's seasons run the other way, so its summer time is October to April. That's why the RBA decision comes earlier in IST in the Indian winter. Japan, like India, doesn't use daylight saving.

When the times change in 2026 and 2027

• 4 October 2026: Australian clocks go forward. The RBA decision moves from 10:00 AM to 9:00 AM IST.
• 25 October 2026: UK and European clocks go back. ECB, Bank of England and UK data move an hour later in IST.
• 1 November 2026: US and Canadian clocks go back. NFP and CPI move from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM IST, and the Fed decision from 11:30 PM to 12:30 AM.
• 14 March 2027: US and Canadian clocks go forward, and US data returns to 6:00 PM IST.
• 28 March 2027: UK and European clocks go forward.
• 4 April 2027: Australian clocks go back.

Watch the weeks in between. From 25 October to 1 November, and from 14 to 28 March, Europe and the US are on different settings. That's when a release you know by heart can catch you an hour early or an hour late.

Why so much of the news lands in the Indian evening

US data at 8:30 AM New York time arrives when London is still open. That overlap, when both the London and New York sessions are trading, runs through the Indian evening and is the busiest part of the forex day. So the biggest scheduled news and the heaviest trading land in the same few hours, roughly 5:30 PM to 10:30 PM IST depending on the season. The best time to trade gold guide covers the sessions in detail.

The mornings are quieter for most Indian traders, but not empty. Australian data and RBA decisions arrive between about 6:00 AM and 10:00 AM IST, Japan's data at 5:20 AM, and the RBI at 10:00 AM.

Using the calendar for gold (XAUUSD)

Gold is priced in dollars and pays no interest, so it reacts most to anything that changes expectations for US interest rates: the jobs report, CPI, PCE and every Fed decision. Before a gold session, the only rows you really need are the high-impact US ones.

• Mark the US releases. On a day with NFP or CPI, the hour after 6:00 PM (or 7:00 PM in winter) is the one to plan around.
• Size for the gap, not the stop. Gold can jump well past a stop loss on a big surprise. Work out what the trade costs if the stop fills a few dollars worse, say $3 to $5, with the XAUUSD lot size calculator.
• Read the reaction guide. How news moves gold: NFP, CPI and FOMC explains how each release tends to move gold, and three ways to handle the release itself.

What happens to your trade at news time

In the minutes around a big release, three things happen that a backtest never shows you:

1. Spreads widen. Brokers widen the gap between buy and sell prices when liquidity thins out just before a release. A trade opened then starts deeper in the red.
2. Stops slip. A stop loss becomes a market order when it's hit. If price jumps past it, the order fills at the next available price, which can be well beyond your level.
3. Moves reverse. The first spike often doesn't last. Plenty of traders have been right on the number and still lost money on the whipsaw.

On a prop firm account there's a fourth: the rules. Some firms restrict trading in a window around high-impact news, especially on funded accounts, and may remove profits from trades inside it. Read your firm's news rule before the week starts; our guide on passing a prop firm challenge covers the other rules to check. Wider spreads also mean bigger floating losses right after entry, which pushes up margin usage, so see what happens at 80% margin usage if your firm has a margin rule.

A simple news routine

Once a week, on Sunday:

1. Scroll through the week's high-impact events for the currencies you trade. For gold, that means USD.
2. Write down the day and the IST time of each one, using the tables above.
3. Note any clock change that week, and any central bank decision.

Every day, before your first trade:

1. Check today's events on this calendar.
2. Decide in advance: close before the release, trade a smaller size, or wait 5 to 15 minutes after it.
3. Set an alarm a few minutes before each one, so it never catches you with a trade open by accident.

Mistakes that cost traders on news days

• Forgetting the clock change. A trader who knows NFP is at 6:00 PM gets caught at 7:00 PM in November, or the other way round in March.
• Trading the first spike. The first move after a release is the least reliable one.
• Ignoring medium-impact news on your own pair. A UK retail sales number can move GBPUSD more than a high-impact release from Japan.
• Holding a full-size position through the release without working out what a slipped stop would cost.
• Treating the forecast as the answer. It's a guess. The surprise is what moves price.