Europe Economics Update Repayment of €2.2trn TLTROs to have little impact The repayment of ECB TLTROs by banks has gone smoothly so far and we expect the rest of the TLTROs to be repaid by the end of 2024 without significantly affecting financial conditions or interest... 31st August 2023 · 4 mins read
Europe Economics Update Money and credit data show effects of tighter policy The effects of tighter monetary policy are very clear in the latest money and credit data, reinforcing our view that the euro-zone economy will perform worse than most analysts expect in the coming... 29th August 2023 · 3 mins read
Europe Economics Update Denmark’s success complicates monetary policy Denmark’s economy has been among the fastest-growing since the pandemic and, although growth will slow in the coming months, we expect it to continue outperforming the euro-zone. Nonetheless, the DNB... 24th August 2023 · 4 mins read
Europe Economics Update Rise in gas prices not yet a big inflation risk The increase in the spot and particularly futures prices of European natural gas in the past few weeks suggests that there is an upside risk to our forecast for euro-zone inflation next year. However... 23rd August 2023 · 2 mins read
Europe Economics Update Boost from tourism is large this year, but will decline While difficult to quantify, we estimate that the growth of tourism added around 0.3% to euro-zone GDP growth in the first half of 2023. However, we think growth will be much slower in the second half... 22nd August 2023 · 4 mins read
Europe Economics Update Only one more Norges Bank hike to come Norges Bank is very close to the end of its tightening cycle. After today’s 25bp hike, taking the deposit rate to 4%, we expect one final 25bp increase in September. We have then pencilled in a faster... 17th August 2023 · 3 mins read
Europe Economics Update Euro-zone industry running out of steam The support to industrial production from the end of major supply chain disruption has run its course. And while the drop in gas prices over the past year could give a boost to some firms, output... 16th August 2023 · 4 mins read
Europe Economics Update Will euro-zone core inflation follow the US down? Core inflation has been falling for around a year in the US and we suspect that it won’t be long before it starts falling in the euro-zone too. However, while core goods inflation in the euro-zone is... 14th August 2023 · 4 mins read
Europe Economics Update Why has the EZ labour market remained so strong? We are unconvinced by Cristine Lagarde’s claim that the recent strength of employment in the euro-zone is due mainly to labour hoarding and shifts in the sectoral composition of employment. Instead... 10th August 2023 · 5 mins read
Europe Economics Update Norges Bank to hike and signal one more increase We think Norges Bank will go through with its plan to raise its policy rate by 25bp next week, to 4.0%, and follow that up with a final hike in September to 4.25%. 10th August 2023 · 3 mins read
FX Markets Update We expect SNB intervention to continue to buoy the franc The appreciation in the Swiss franc this year has been largely at odds with moves in many of the factors which typically drive the currency. We believe this is mostly due to intervention from the... 7th August 2023 · 3 mins read
Europe Economics Update Minor risk to inflation outlook from extreme weather Extreme weather phenomena in Europe as well as worldwide, including El Niño, could push up food and energy prices. But we think that these only pose a very small upside risk to our inflation forecasts... 4th August 2023 · 4 mins read
Europe Economics Update Euro-zone GDP not as good as it looks The 0.3% rise in euro-zone GDP in Q2 was largely due to a huge increase in Ireland’s GDP and the export of a cruise ship from France. Neither of these is a sustainable source of growth. With more of... 31st July 2023 · 2 mins read
Europe Economics Update Track record suggests EU will be slow to adopt AI Europe benefitted less than the US from information-communications technology between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s because most of the innovative tech firms were based in the US and structural factors... 28th July 2023 · 4 mins read
Europe Economics Update ECB definitely maybe close to the peak The ECB’s decision to raise rates by 25bp today and Christine Lagarde’s guidance that another hike was a “decisive maybe” will not have surprised anybody. On balance, we think the Bank will probably... 27th July 2023 · 3 mins read
Europe Economics Update Money and lending data point to recession Data released this week show that tighter monetary policy has led to a sharp slowdown in money and lending growth, consistent on past form with falling GDP. Together with the latest business surveys... 26th July 2023 · 3 mins read