From US to Japan: A rundown on world economy's most important week in 2018

Investors reacted to all the events by sending the dollar to its largest weekly gain since 2016 while keeping pressure on emerging markets vulnerable to the more restrictive policies

Billed as the most important week of the year for the global economy, central banks provided insight into the outlook for monetary policy through the rest of 2018 and beyond and putting a clear stamp on financial markets.

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates, the European Central Bank said it would stop bond buying in December and the Bank of Japan kept stimulating. It was the People’s Bank of China, however, which perhaps transmitted the most tremors through markets as it chose not to follow the Fed in hiking.

The policy makers acted as economic data disappointed in many regions outside of