Europe Economics Update Lessons from Europe’s past wage-price spirals While there are limits to the lessons we can draw from the past, Europe’s experiences since World War Two provide some guidance as to the outlook for wages and inflation. They suggest that the recent... 10th February 2022 · 4 mins read
Nordic & Swiss Economics Update Riksbank unlikely to buck the trend for much longer While the Riksbank largely stuck to its dovish stance this morning, the fact that three of the six members of the Executive Board entered reservations and favoured reducing the size of the balance... 10th February 2022 · 3 mins read
Europe Economics Update Will ECB tightening cause a fresh crisis? Any policy tightening by the ECB in 2022-23 will probably be too limited to cause major problems in the bond market. But if interest rates rise much further than we anticipate, that could trigger... 9th February 2022 · 4 mins read
Europe Economics Update How big a problem are higher interest rates for Italy? Our base case is that monetary tightening by the ECB results in a manageable rise in Italy’s government bond yields. We think it would take 10-year yields rising to 5% or more to bring debt... 9th February 2022 · 4 mins read
Nordic & Swiss Economics Update Stoltenberg is not the most logical of appointments Today’s appointment of Jens Stoltenberg as the new Governor of the Norges Bank is a slap in the face for the bus driver, plumber, and baker who had applied for the job, as well as the two thirds of... 4th February 2022 · 3 mins read
Europe Economics Update What explains January’s inflation surprise? Most of the surprise in January’s inflation data came from energy inflation. But core inflation was also unexpectedly strong. With underlying price pressures continuing to build, there is a good... 3rd February 2022 · 2 mins read
Europe Economics Update ECB turns hawkish and tees up 2022 rate hikes While the ECB did not change its policy settings today, President Lagarde more than made up for it in the press conference. We now think the ECB will decide in March to taper its asset purchases... 3rd February 2022 · 3 mins read
Europe Economics Update Portugal rebound to continue after election The Socialist Party’s victory in yesterday’s election means there will be no substantial change in economic policy, but the government should be more stable. In any case, Portugal’s economy is set to... 31st January 2022 · 4 mins read
Europe Economics Update Best possible outcome for Italy By re-electing Sergio Mattarella as president and ensuring that Mario Draghi remains prime minister, Italy’s political establishment has achieved what appears to be the best possible outcome. The... 31st January 2022 · 3 mins read
Europe Economics How big a deal is the Ukraine crisis for the euro-zone? A Russian military invasion of Ukraine would adversely affect the euro-zone economy by further disrupting the market for energy, pushing up inflation and reducing households’ real incomes. However... 25th January 2022 · 4 mins read
Europe Economics Update Rising house prices strengthen ECB hawks’ case Euro-zone inflation would be even further above target if owner-occupied housing costs were included in the region’s headline measure. Their formal inclusion won’t take place for a few years yet, but... 25th January 2022 · 3 mins read
Europe Economics Update Further thoughts on Italy’s presidential vote Italy’s presidential election, which will begin next week, threatens to reignite political uncertainty that has been quiescent since Mario Draghi became prime minister last year. While we agree that... 21st January 2022 · 3 mins read
Europe Economics Update ECB increasingly split over inflation outlook 20th January 2022 · 3 mins read
Nordic & Swiss Economics Update Norges Bank will resume hikes in March After twelve years in the job, Øystein Olsen was never going to spring a surprise at his last meeting in charge of the Norges Bank. Instead, the Bank left its policy rate unchanged at 0.5% and... 20th January 2022 · 3 mins read
Nordic & Swiss Economics Update Riksbank to join tightening crowd later this year We expect policymakers in Denmark and Switzerland to match the 50bps of interest rate hikes that we now forecast in the euro-zone next year. And against the backdrop of rising global interest rates... 13th January 2022 · 3 mins read
Europe Economics Update ECB likely to raise rates to zero in 2023 With pandemic-related inflationary pressures proving a bit more intense and persistent than we had anticipated, and policymakers sounding more willing to tighten policy, we think the ECB is most... 12th January 2022 · 3 mins read
