Nordic & Swiss Economics Weekly Higher inflation and tighter policy in the Nordics Inflation data released this week across the Nordics confirmed that price pressures are building in the region. As a result, the Norges Bank looks set to press ahead with interest rate hikes, perhaps... 14th April 2022 · 4 mins read
Nordic & Swiss Economics Weekly Flodén leaves no room for ambiguity Riksbank policymaker Martin Flodén dialled up the hawkishness this week, arguing that monetary policy must respond to higher inflation. And with data due next week likely to show Swedish inflation in... 8th April 2022 · 6 mins read
Europe Economics Weekly Is the euro-zone heading for recession? The latest surveys suggest that the euro-zone economy was still growing at a decent pace in March, but the risk of it contracting in Q2 is rising. The main event over the weekend will be the first... 8th April 2022 · 4 mins read
Europe Economics Weekly ECB cannot ignore surging inflation for long With euro-zone inflation having jumped to 7.5% in March it seems increasingly likely that the ECB will accelerate its plans to tighten monetary policy. We now think it will begin raising rates as soon... 1st April 2022 · 7 mins read
Nordic & Swiss Economics Weekly Hold the press! SNB to join the hiking party this year The fact that we expect the ECB to hike interest rates sooner and faster than we previously anticipated shifts the goalposts for the SNB and, after a prolonged period of policy hibernation, brings... 1st April 2022 · 4 mins read
Europe Economics Weekly EU struggles to agree on next steps for energy EU leaders have struggled to agree on whether to impose more curbs on Russian energy and on how to best support households and firms in the face of spiralling energy prices. But most national... 25th March 2022 · 8 mins read
Nordic & Swiss Economics Weekly Anna Breman baffles a bunch of students The finer points of Anna Breman’s views on the outlook for Riksbank policy were probably lost on her audience of a group of secondary students in a speech this week, but the message for avid Riksbank... 25th March 2022 · 5 mins read
Nordic & Swiss Economics Weekly Ingves’s epiphany opens door to April Riksbank hike It has been a long time coming, but Riksbank Governor Ingves’s apparent hawkish epiphany finally opens the door to tighter policy in Sweden. While analyst expectations have crowded around September as... 18th March 2022 · 4 mins read
Europe Economics Weekly Assessing the impact of the Ukraine war Next week we will learn more about the extent to which the Ukraine war is impacting economic activity. We have cut our GDP forecast by one percentage point for this year, but the risks to that... 18th March 2022 · 6 mins read
Nordic & Swiss Economics Weekly SNB say relax; Norges Bank to press on with hikes The SNB does not seem to be losing much sleep about the strength of the franc against the euro, despite the currency’s brief foray past parity earlier this week. The truth of the matter is that euro... 11th March 2022 · 4 mins read
Europe Economics Weekly Further thoughts on the ECB Yesterday’s ECB decision was more hawkish than expected, so while we are sticking to our view that QE will end in Q3 and the Bank will raise interest rates in December, the risks are now skewed... 11th March 2022 · 6 mins read
Nordic & Swiss Economics Weekly Finland exposed; Swiss franc on cusp of euro parity As we argued only last week, the SNB has so far been willing to let the franc rise against the euro. However, policymakers’ tolerance would surely be tested if the franc were to push through the... 4th March 2022 · 4 mins read
Europe Economics Weekly Revising down our euro-zone GDP forecasts The ratcheting-up of sanctions on Russia and the further surge in commodity prices this week mean we are revising down our euro-zone growth forecast for 2022. Exports to Russia will collapse while... 4th March 2022 · 6 mins read
Nordic & Swiss Economics Weekly Safe-haven franc not a dire concern for the SNB The divergence between gold prices and the Swiss franc/euro cross rate in the hours after the start of the invasion of Ukraine suggests to us that the SNB intervened to limit the sharp rise in the... 25th February 2022 · 5 mins read
Europe Economics Weekly Ukraine crisis to affect inflation more than growth As a result of the Ukraine crisis, we have revised up our inflation forecasts even further above the consensus. But we think that the impact of higher inflation on consumption will be cushioned by the... 25th February 2022 · 9 mins read
Europe Economics Weekly ECB consensus building on policy normalisation While Russia-Ukraine tensions escalated further still this week, the economic spillovers to the euro-zone are likely to be limited and are therefore unlikely to change the ECB’s policy assessment... 18th February 2022 · 6 mins read
