Nordic & Swiss Economics Update Riksbank still too optimistic about repo rate hikes The dovish shift in the Riksbank’s policy stance is a step in the right direction. But with economic growth and core inflation set to remain subdued over the coming years, we still think that... 25th April 2019 · 1 min read
Nordic & Swiss Economics Update Higher oil prices not a game changer for Norway We expect that higher oil prices will result in the Norges Bank raising interest rates twice this year and that the krone will outperform its Nordic peers. However, if we are proved correct in our... 24th April 2019 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update Six key questions about Spain’s general election Whatever government is formed after Spain’s general election, we expect it to implement a moderate fiscal tightening, causing economic growth to slow slightly. But Spain should remain one of the euro... 24th April 2019 · 1 min read
Nordic & Swiss Economics Update Finland set for a grand coalition, eventually The success of the nationalist Finns Party in yesterday’s parliamentary election is further evidence of the increasing fragmentation in European politics, while the tight result suggests that the... 15th April 2019 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update ECB will still need to do more to support the economy President Draghi’s comments at today’s press conference suggest that the ECB will announce the terms of the TLTRO-III programme in June, which we suspect will be more generous than previous TLTROs... 10th April 2019 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update ECB worrying about downside risks The account of the ECB’s 7th March monetary policy meeting makes gloomy reading. It confirms that policymakers were worried about downside risks to their growth and inflation forecasts, even though... 4th April 2019 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update Tiered ECB deposit rate would be a dovish signal If it is introduced (which is far from certain) a tiered deposit rate would reduce the cost of negative interest rates for banks, but it would do so by only a trivial amount. Its main purpose would be... 29th March 2019 · 3 mins read
Europe Economics Update China rebound won’t get Germany back on track Weaker Chinese demand can explain only a fraction of the slowdown in German GDP growth over the past year: softer demand in other export markets and in the euro-zone are more important factors... 28th March 2019 · 1 min read
Nordic & Swiss Economics Update How would the DNB respond to more ECB QE? If the past is anything to go by, a fresh round of ECB QE would lead to upward pressure on the Danish krone. We think Denmark’s Nationalbank would react with a combination of FX intervention and rate... 26th March 2019 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update Spain’s economy likely to slow after general election The Spanish economy looks set to slow slightly as the effect of last year’s fiscal stimulus fades and weak growth elsewhere in the euro-zone takes a toll. That said, it will still probably be one of... 26th March 2019 · 1 min read
Nordic & Swiss Economics Update Monetary policy likely to prevent weaker NOK We are now more hawkish than the consensus about the outlook for monetary policy in Norway this year. But we don’t expect the krone to keep strengthening, as we forecast that oil prices will fall. 22nd March 2019 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update Slowing bank lending to weigh on Italy’s economy Higher government bond yields in Italy have not fed through to increased interest rates on bank loans, and this seems unlikely to happen to any significant degree this year. Nevertheless, Italian... 21st March 2019 · 1 min read
Nordic & Swiss Economics Update Interest rate hikes in Iceland appear even less likely As we expected, weak economic data and a recent pick-up in the króna contributed to the Central Bank of Iceland leaving interest rates on hold today. While it maintained a hawkish bias in its... 20th March 2019 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update Germany stuck in the slow lane A slow start to the year, combined with a deterioration in prospects for both export growth and household consumption, has prompted us to cut our forecast for economic growth in Germany to only 0.5%... 19th March 2019 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update Wage growth likely to stop rising this year Euro-zone labour cost growth edged down in Q4 and, in contrast to the ECB, we don’t expect it to start rising again this year. This suggests that upward pressure on core inflation will remain muted. 19th March 2019 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update Euro-zone’s supply chain links: smaller than assumed Supply-chain links between Germany and the manufacturing sectors of other large euro-zone countries are smaller than people tend to think. As long as the slowdown in Germany is contained primarily to... 15th March 2019 · 1 min read
