With that March US CPI print sinking hopes for a first half Fed rate cut, even as other DM central banks prepare to start easing, dollar strength looks set to continue for now. What will this mean for China and Japan, whose authorities have already been …
17th April 2024
South Africa’s latest hard activity data provided some encouraging signs that the economy may be turning the corner even if it comes too late to help the ANC’s hopes of keeping its majority in parliament after May’s election. With electricity outages …
Saudi Arabia has yet to be able to raise foreign direct investment towards its Vision 2030 goals, prompting a turn to the Public Investment Fund (PIF) to prop up investment spending. Unless the government makes major strides to improve the local business …
We think it is most likely that future governments bring down Belgium’s budget deficit sufficiently to put its debt on a sustainable trajectory. However, the risks are that the deficit is higher than we forecast because of Belgium’s divided political …
The detailed breakdown of March’s euro-zone HICP data, released this morning, show that the early timing of Easter boosted services inflation by 0.1ppts. This effect was smaller than in previous years. Nevertheless, excluding the tourism-related sectors …
The recent bout of EM currency weakness may prompt (further) FX intervention, particularly in Asia, to stem currency volatility. Turkey’s central bank is likely to hike rates at its meeting next week and a hike is also now on the table at the Bank …
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Inflation fall will not sway the SARB into interest rate cuts The larger-than-expected fall in South Africa’s headline inflation rate, to 5.3% y/y, in March will not be enough to …
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Upside surprise, but big drop to below 2% still coming in April The smaller-than-expected fall in CPI inflation from 3.4% in February to 3.2% in March (BoE and consensus 3.1%, CE …
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Net exports will be a drag on Q1 GDP While the trade deficit increased in March, net goods trade should contribute positively to Q1 GDP figures. But net services should have …
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Upside inflation surprise raises “higher for longer” risks Although the Q1 CPI print was a touch stronger than we had predicted, we still expect inflation to return to the RBNZ’s …
Although Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland stuck to her previous pledge to keep the budget deficit below $40bn in the new fiscal year, she nonetheless spent the small windfall afforded to the government thanks to stronger-than-expected revenue growth. …
16th April 2024
Continued resilience in the US economy looks set to delay the Fed easing cycle until (at least) the second half of this year, so we now think the greenback will stay strong against most currencies over the next couple of quarters. We now forecast the DXY …
The latest US CPI data may have dashed hopes of interest rate cuts as early as June, but looser monetary policy is still firmly on the cards late this year and over the course of next year. Lower rates should be positive for commodity prices but, …
As the plunge in employment in Q1 is probably a response to the recession last year, employment will probably soon rebound now that the economy is growing again. The real risk is a rebound in job vacancies prevents wage growth from falling as fast and as …
The correlation between changes in bond yields and in equities has rarely been so negative, and we suspect this will continue as yields fall back and equities rebound. When the Federal Reserve turned to monetary policy tightening in 2022, Treasury yields …
Concerns about escalating tensions in the Middle East and the impact on global oil supplies increase the likelihood that the US will renew its sanctions waiver on Venezuela when the current one expires on Thursday. A rise in key oil exports would help the …
New housing policies to provide only modest support The government’s policies to boost affordability for first-time buyers will have only a modest impact on demand, but they still add to our sense that house prices will rise in the coming years. While …
As things stand, higher oil prices will boost inflation in advanced economies by only a few tenths of a percentage point in the months ahead and we still expect this boost to fade as the year goes on. There are upside risks relating to tensions in the …
Manufacturing rallies, but hi-tech boom revised down The 0.4% m/m increase in industrial production in March was principally due to a 0.5% m/m increase in manufacturing output, which was a lot better than we had expected given the already-reported decline …
Largest decline in housing starts since April 2020 Housing starts weren’t able to build on the strong performance of the previous month in March, falling by the largest monthly amount since April 2020 in the early days of the pandemic. Although some of …
On track for a June interest rate cut The March CPI data showed the third consecutive month of muted gains in the Bank of Canada’s preferred core inflation measures, suggesting that there is a growing chance of the Bank cutting interest rates at its next …
The ECB looks set to cut rates in June, reducing the deposit rate from 4% to 3.75%, and we think it will follow that up with rate reductions at every remaining meeting this year . The pace of cuts might slow next year as policymakers feel their way …
It wasn’t so long ago that markets would barely take note of a major summit or meeting between political leaders. These days, bilateral get-togethers are followed by a scouring of accompanying communiques for signs of shifting geo-political allegiances …
This year’s falls in iron ore prices are likely to have been a dress rehearsal for what's ahead. Our China team’s forecast for the property sector to halve by the end of the decade does not bode well for iron ore producers’ plans to ramp up production. …
Many of the usual relationships between oil prices and equities haven’t held over recent months. This Update explores the reason for that, and what may lie in store for energy equities and the broader market. Since troughing on 12 th December 2023, the …
The resilience of Swiss GDP over the past two years has been largely due to the merchanting sector, which buys and sells goods without them ever entering Switzerland. Excluding that sector, the economy was smaller at the end of 2023 than it was two years …
While rental performance in German commercial property markets has been relatively solid given the country’s poor economic performance over the past five or so years, we think this is set to end. In a recent Focus we highlighted how, after a very subdued …
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Weaker labour market points to weaker wage growth The sharp fall in employment and the jump in the unemployment rate in February suggest that wage growth will continue to slow …
Local factors will determine the next moves by most of Asia’s central banks, not the actions of the US Fed. We expect policymakers in Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and Korea to lower interest rates later this year, regardless of whether the Fed cuts. …
Fiscally-fuelled improvement unlikely to last long Stronger-than-expected official GDP figures indicate that China’s economy gained momentum in Q1, thanks to policy support. But monthly activity data suggest that this policy-driven recovery is shaky. …
Financial markets have, so far, taken the latest escalation in the Middle East over the weekend largely in stride. Our sense remains that, absent an even larger conflagration that disrupts energy supply chains, market participants will continue to focus …
15th April 2024
Our analysis shows that for CPI inflation to get stuck above 2.0% it would require oil prices and UK wholesale gas prices to rise to $110 per barrel and 150 pence per therm respectively. And for CPI inflation to return to 5.0%, it would require increases …
We think that any impact from the suspension of trading of Russian metal on the LME and CME is likely to be muted, given that trade flows have already shifted markedly and it is unlikely to impact supply. The US and UK announced fresh sanctions on Russia …
Downside risks to flash GDP estimate for February The unchanged level of wholesale sales and signs that manufacturing GDP contracted suggest that there are downside risks to the flash estimate that GDP rose by 0.4% m/m in February. The 0.7% m/m rise in …
Consumption growth still rock solid The strong rise in retail sales in March and upward revision to February’s data will further support the Fed’s stance that there is no rush to start lowering interest rates. The 0.7% m/m rise in headline sales was …
The Iranian strike over the weekend has been largely shrugged off by Israel’s financial markets and on its own is unlikely to have a major impact on the economy. The key uncertainty now is how Israel responds. An aggressive Israeli military response that …
Inflation edges down and will remain low Saudi Arabia’s headline inflation rate slowed to 1.6% y/y in March on the back of weaker food and non-food inflation. While there’s likely to be a slight bump up in inflation in the second half of this year, the …
There are clearly many ways in which tensions between Iran and Israel could escalate and push up oil prices following the Iranian drone strike at the weekend. But the risk that a conflict involving Iran disrupts oil production in the Gulf states is much …
Further jump in inflation means tightening cycle likely to continue Nigeria recorded another acceleration in headline inflation to 33.2% y/y in March as the previous falls in the naira have continued to push up prices. And while the naira has staged a …
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Rise in output doesn’t improve poor outlook for industry Euro-zone industrial production rose in January, but the level of output is still weak and the outlook is poor. The 0.8% …
Weak capital spending is a key reason for Australia’s poor productivity performance. While investment growth has been strong recently, we think it will take until the second half of this decade before the level of capital spending is high enough to return …
The drone attacks by Iran on Israel overnight mark a new and potentially significantly more dangerous phase in troubles in the region. The key risks for the global economy are whether this now escalates into a broader regional conflict, and what the …
14th April 2024
Janet Yellen lent official voice to resurgent global worries about the threat of Chinese overcapacity when she pointedly criticised Beijing’s overinvestment and underpowered consumption during her trip there earlier this month. But are the US Treasury …
13th April 2024
The third consecutive 0.4% m/m increase in core CPI in March, coming on the heels of the 303,000 surge in non-farm payrolls, fuelled fears that a pick-up in the real economy is now translating into a resurgence in inflation too. We are not convinced. …
12th April 2024
The US dollar has surged in the wake of another too-hot US CPI print , a dovish ECB and disappointing credit data out of China . The DXY index is now approaching its peak of last autumn (~106 currently, vs ~107 on 1 st November), and our sense is that the …
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s pledge to create the conditions needed for lower interest rates means the government is unlikely to announce much new near-term spending in Budget 2024 next week. Providing that core inflation pressures remain muted, …
Inflationary pressures both domestically and in the US may keep government bond yields in emerging markets (EM) high for a while yet. But we think they will eventually fall later in the year. 10-year EM government bond yields have followed US Treasury …
Spectre of former President Zuma worries ANC The big news in South Africa this week was a court decision allowing former president Zuma to stand in the May elections, which has added another level of uncertainty to the vote. Opinion polls suggest that his …
Strong US CPI puts further pressure on the RMB The stronger US CPI print on Wednesday pushed back expectations for Fed rate cuts. Most currencies depreciated against the US dollar as a result. But, while the offshore renminbi weakened 0.4% on Wednesday, …
