Mr Wheeler will today give his traditional new year speech on the economy to the Canterbury Employers Chamber of Commerce.
ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley expected to see some elaboration on the reasoning behind the Reserve Bank's January 28 shift to a clearer easing bias.
The January statement showed the Reserve Bank was slightly more concerned about the general economic outlook.
However, the central bank seemed too complacent about the risks of inflation remaining weaker than expected.
From next year onwards, the speech would take on greater significant as an update on Reserve Bank thinking, he said.
The January OCR review window had been scrapped and the speech would be the first scheduled talking opportunity after the November Monetary Policy Statement.
Assistant governor John McDermott was delivering a speech tomorrow and because it was so close to Mr Wheeler's speech, the contents were likely to have less market significance, Mr Tuffley said.
The Reserve Bank of Australia left its official lending rate unchanged at 2% yesterday and the soft easing bias remained.
The latest release for underlying inflation, while soft, came in exactly in line with the RBA's forecast.
The marked improvement in the Australian labour market meant there was no need for the RBA to ease policy.
The lower Australian dollar also added reason for rates to be left on hold.
Mr Tuffley said the RBA's statement on monetary policy would be released on Friday.
The central bank's updated forecasts should show downward revisions to trading partner growth, the terms of trade and the Australian dollar.
On the domestic front, a stronger labour market meant the RBA's forecast for the unemployment rate was likely to be lower.
Tomorrow, the Bank of England was expected to leave policy settings unchanged at 0.5%, he said.
