How high will the November consumer price index turn out to be on Tuesday?

How much will the Federal Reserve decide to raise interest rates on Wednesday?

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And what will November retail sales tell about the Christmas shopping season on Thursday?

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READ: Consumers Turn Cheery Ahead of Holidays ]

Questions aplenty this week for the economy and the markets with answers to come in a data-filled week that puts the final stamp on two of 2022’s most important economic trends: the pace of inflation and the level of interest rates.

“Inflation has dominated the economy this year, and the economic outlook depends in large part on the path of inflation and the amount of pain required to get inflation back on track,” Joey Politano, a labor market expert and independent economics blogger, wrote Saturday on his Apricitas Economics blog.

The week’s highlight promises to be the Wednesday decision by the Fed on how much to raise interest rates with experts predicting a 50-basis-point hike after Chairman Jerome Powell signaled as much earlier this month in a speech at the Brookings Institution.

“The time for moderating the pace of rate increases may come as soon as the December meeting,” Powell said. “We have a broad set of thoughts about where that destination might be, but we could be wrong. We’ll have to see.”

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Analysts will pore over the decision but also scrutinize Powell’s comments at the press conference that follows the announcement and the updated economic projections that will be released.

By then, the Fed will have the news on Tuesday of November’s consumer price index. Estimates are for a continued downward trend in price increases, with a monthly increase of 0.3% compared to October’s 0.4%, and a yearly rate of 7.3% after the prior month’s 7.7%. While that is considerably above the Fed’s long-term goal of a 2% annual average, it will be the direction and trend that matters most