Emerging Europe Economics Update Russian central bank signals rate cut is imminent The dovish nature of the Russian central bank’s post-meeting statement has prompted us to bring forward the interest rate cut that we had pencilled in for Q3 to June. Further ahead, we forecast that... 26th April 2019 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Economics Update Turkish MPC brings policy easing on to the agenda The Turkish central bank’s decision to leave interest rates on hold at today’s meeting was widely expected, although changes to the accompanying statement suggest that the MPC is starting to consider... 25th April 2019 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Economics Update Russian ruble rally likely to fade The Russian ruble has been the best-performing EM currency so far this year, in spite of the threat of tighter US sanctions which caused a premium to open up in February. We think that the ruble rally... 24th April 2019 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Economics Update What would a no-deal Brexit mean for Emerging Europe? In the event of a no-deal Brexit, we think that weaker UK import demand would probably result in Central European GDP growth in 2019-20 being 0.3-0.5%-pts weaker than in a managed Brexit scenario... 3rd April 2019 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Economics Update What should we make of Rosstat’s latest revisions? The strength of Russian GDP growth in Q4 (and the upwards revisions to the historical data) has caused controversy. But overall, we think the new GDP figures probably bear a closer resemblance to... 1st April 2019 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Economics Update Czech National Bank flags euro-zone concerns The Czech National Bank made clear that it is more concerned about the impact of weakness in the euro-zone than strong domestic inflationary pressures. We still think that above-target inflation may... 28th March 2019 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Economics Update Turkey’s banks the weakest link during market stress The turmoil in Turkey’s financial markets has raised external borrowing costs, making it more difficult to roll over the country’s large external debt burden. The risks are largest in the banking... 28th March 2019 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Economics Update Turkey: financial conditions tighten sharply The Turkish lira has recovered lost ground, but financial conditions remain much tighter than they were at the start of last week and point to continued weakness in domestic demand. 27th March 2019 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Economics Update Hungary reluctantly hikes interest rates Today’s very small interest rate hike in Hungary was the least that policymakers could do to show their commitment to the inflation target. But so long as key euro-zone export markets don’t weaken... 26th March 2019 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Economics Update Turkish lira back in the firing line The sell-off in the Turkish lira late last week provided a timely reminder that many of the factors that drove last year’s currency crisis – including geopolitical tensions and concerns about the... 25th March 2019 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Economics Update CBR likely to cut rates before the end of this year The Central Bank of Russia’s dovish tilt today has prompted us to bring forward some of the interest rate cuts that we had been anticipating in 2020. We now think that the policy rate will be lowered... 22nd March 2019 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Economics Update Slowdown in Czech economy likely to continue We think that weakness in Germany and softening domestic demand will result in Czech GDP growth slowing to about 2.5% this year. This puts us at the bottom of the range of forecasters. 19th March 2019 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Economics Update Turkey and the problem of deposit dollarisation The growing prevalence of foreign currency deposits in Turkey’s banking sector is symptomatic of the country’s long-standing inflation problem. Unless the central bank breaks with the past and brings... 13th March 2019 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Economics Update Turkish rates on hold, easing cycle to start in June The hawkish tone of the Turkish central bank’s recent communications meant that a rate cut was never likely at today’s meeting. But with inflation set to fall further in the coming months and the... 6th March 2019 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Economics Update Czech koruna likely to be weaker than CNB expects The Czech koruna is likely to defy the central bank’s (CNB’s) expectation that it will appreciate over the coming quarters. One consequence of this is that policymakers will probably raise interest... 28th February 2019 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Economics Update Hungarian outperformance driven by one-off boosts Hungary was one of the fastest-growing EMs in the final quarter of last year. But almost all this was due to temporary factors and we expect that GDP growth will slow sharply this year. 21st February 2019 · 1 min read
