Our forecast that the Bank of England won’t start cutting interest rates until the second half of 2024 means mortgage rates are likely to stay between 5.5% and 6.0% until mid-2024. While transactions volumes have only seen a modest decline so far, we …
19th September 2023
Sharp drop in housing starts suggest turning point Housing starts fell sharply across both the single-family and multifamily sectors in August, suggesting that construction has now reached a turning point. We expect this downward trend to continue for the …
The problems of WeWork, which have intensified in recent months, do not look reflective of significant distress in the wider flexible office market. However, flex has yet to see much of a boost from greater hybrid working and may not be immune from …
The wage-setting behaviour of Japanese firms has changed over the last couple of years and to reflect this we’re revising our long-run inflation forecast from 0.5% to 1.0%. However, that would still mean that inflation will settle well below the BoJ’s 2% …
RBA’s pause to continue Although the RBA won’t be dropping its guard in the fight against inflation anytime soon, we still believe its tightening cycle is at an end. The minutes of the RBA’s September meeting showed that the Board did once again discuss …
The latest increase in the 10-year TIPS yield, to a post-Global - Financial-Crisis high of ~2% at one point last week, has barely caused a ripple in the markets. More generally, the influence of “safe” US real government bond yields on other assets has …
18th September 2023
House price inflation turned positive in August, but the smaller monthly price gain combined with signs of easing demand and increasing supply show that the housing market continues to cool. The 0.4% y/y increase in the MLS House Price Index in August was …
Overview – A slower fall in core inflation than in the US or the euro-zone will mean that the Bank of England keeps interest rates on hold at the probable peak of 5.50% for longer than the US Fed or the ECB. But our non-consensus forecast that higher …
We expect that the global cotton market will be finely balanced in 2023/24 as demand picks up and supply falls across key producers. We forecast that the US cotton price will rise gradually from here, but will not revisit the highs of 2022. The cotton …
Sharp rise in lending in August likely to be temporary The $29.0bn monthly rise in real estate debt held by US banks in August, now at $5.48trn outstanding, was the largest m/m increase in six months. However, we expect this spike to be short-lived, as …
Supplies of freshwater are likely to become scarcer over time as the world heats up and precipitation patterns change. While investment into infrastructure and boosting desalination capacity can help to increase supplies, the costs borne by consumers and …
Investor nerves in recent weeks have been tested by two opposing inflation concerns. The first is that China is on the cusp of a deflationary spiral that will pull down the rest of the global economy. The second is that resurgent energy prices will lead …
There’s a lot of uncertainty about how much impact monetary tightening has had in the global economy so far, but in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) the hit to households has already been significant and we estimate that almost all of the impact from …
The sustainability of above-target inflation is still in doubt However, Bank seems keen on getting rid of negative interest rates We now expect the Bank to lift its policy rate from -0.1% to +0.1% in January Even though the sustainability of …
As the ECB, Bank of England and Fed end their tightening cycles, attention invariably turns to when rates could be cut. Group Chief Economist Neil Shearing explains why investors hoping for clues on timing from central bankers are going to be …
15th September 2023
Another week, another rise in the DXY index, which at the time of writing is on track for a ninth consecutive weekly rise. Continued robust activity data in the US and the ECB signalling the end of its rate hiking cycle accounts for the greenback’s …
South Africa’s fiscal rule talk Reports emerged this week that, in a bid to keep investors on side amid a worsening budget position, South Africa’s Treasury is proposing to establish a new “fiscal anchor”. Even so, a looser fiscal stance still seems an …
We expect China’s equities to fare better than those in the US in the near term. Stronger-than-expected August activity data out of China seem to have given the country’s equities a bit of a boost today. But the gains haven’t been particularly broad …
Note: Join our online briefing on Tuesday, 19 th September about oil prices and the risks to the global inflation outlook. Register here . The mood was upbeat in commodity markets this week, with prices rising across all sectors. Oil stood out, with …
A recent poll suggests that Canadians are growing sceptical of the government's high immigration targets. Whether policy shifts or not, it is inevitable that net immigration will eventually slow from record rates, but there is no sign of that yet. Opinion …
Easing inflation expectations an encouraging sign for Fed The small fall in the University of Michigan index suggests that consumers remain downbeat in September. But the bigger news was the fairly sharp drop-back in households’ inflation expectations – …
We were not surprised that European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen announced in her State of the Union address this week that the EC will launch an anti-subsidy investigation into electric vehicle (EV) imports from China. Indeed, we had …
Argentina: Devaluation triggers inflation jump This week’s inflation data from Argentina made for a grim reading. Consumer prices rose by 12.4% m/m in August on the back of last month’s devaluation , pushing inflation to 124% y/y – the highest rate since …
Russia seeking closer friendship with North Korea The strengthening relationship between President Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was on show this week but we doubt the discussions will yield any meaningful benefits for Russia’s economy or …
Core inflation still on firm downward trend Although core CPI increased by 0.3% m/m in August (or 0.28% to be precise), up slightly on the 0.2% m/m gains (both 0.16%) in the preceding two months, the rise last month was still smaller than the average gain …
The recent outperformance of single-family REITs versus apartment REITs appears to be down to differences in the capital value outlook for the sectors, rather than any major difference in rental growth prospects. With our forecasts for single-family and …
Easing supply shortages continue to support activity The continued strength of manufacturing sales in July suggests that GDP may be stronger than initially expected, as easing supply shortages continue to support the manufacturing sector. While there may …
Drop back in motor vehicle output not a concern The 0.1% m/m increase in manufacturing output in August was marginally better than we had expected, but doesn’t change the broader picture, which is that, with global manufacturing still struggling, the …
Recent data show Sri Lanka’s economy is now rebounding strongly from last year’s political and economic crisis. We expect the recovery to continue over the coming months, helped by the sharp drop in inflation, lower interest rates, a recovery in tourism …
Note: We’ll be discussing September’s Fed, ECB and Bank of England policy decisions in a Drop-In at 3pm BST on Thursday 21st September. (Register here .) We’ve been surprised by the resilience of the labour market over the past year. More recently, …
While policymakers’ efforts to prop up the renminbi and the yen alone are not enough to generate a lasting turnaround , they will probably do enough to buy time until US interest rate expectations and Treasury yields fall back and the dollar depreciates …
Property controls have been substantively relaxed in recent weeks. The big announcements came on the last day of August. But there has since been plenty of easing at the local level too. At least ten large cities have lifted all home purchase …
CBR delivers another large hike, more tightening still in the pipeline Russia’s central bank (CBR) raised its policy rate by 100bp, to 13.00%, at today’s meeting and with the ruble likely to remain under pressure and inflation pressures to keep building, …
We think the euro-zone economy will go into recession in the second half of 2023, and the subsequent recovery will be weak due to the lagged impact of monetary policy tightening as well as tight fiscal policy. Headline inflation in the euro-zone will …
The surprising strength of office market rents looks to reflect the increased use of incentives. Indeed, passing rents have seen a sharp decline, with all-office annual growth recently falling to a record low of minus 3.3%. Given an upcoming recession and …
Based on our view that US economic growth will prove resilient, despite the rise in interest rates, and that US inflation will ease, we expect the gold price to fall to $1,800 per ounce by year-end. Since rising to around $2,000 per ounce on safe-haven …
G20 summit exceeds low expectations T he G20 managed to deliver a joint statement at its summit in New Delhi, which was deemed as something of a foreign policy triumph for Prime Minister Modi given the uncertainty ahead of the event. This owed much to …
Hold likely in Philippines despite jump in inflation The scheduled highlights of the coming week are monetary policy meetings in Indonesia, Taiwan and the Philippines. While Indonesia and Taiwan are very likely to leave policy settings unchanged, the …
We think Norges Bank will go through with its plan to raise its policy rate by 25bp next week, to 4.25%, and signal that its tightening cycle is over. It is then likely to will wait until around the middle of next year before cutting interest rates, but …
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication . Inflation accelerates once again, setting the stage for more tightening Nigeria’s headline inflation rate rose again to an almost-18 year high of 25.8% y/y in August, as the …
This page has been updated with additional analysis and charts since first publication. Economy regains momentum as consumers step up Although a slight uptick in activity was expected, the August data turned out to be even better than anticipated. Fiscal …
Wage growth will remain contained Data published by the Fair Work Commission on Monday showed that average annualised wage increases under new enterprise bargaining agreements (EBAs) soared to 4.4% in the two weeks leading up to August 11 th . That meant …
Ueda signals tighter policy Bank of Japan Governor Ueda’s comments over the weekend that the Bank may have enough information by the end of this year to call time on negative interest rates sent 10-year JGB yields above 0.7% for the first time since 2014. …
We think emerging market (EM) equities in Asia will outperform those in EMEA and Latin America over the next couple of years, although we doubt they’ll do better than developed market (DM) equities. EM equities have struggled this year, at least judging …
Given our dovish view of monetary policy in Emerging Markets (EMs) – and our increasingly less bearish view of the US economy – we think that EM local-currency government bond yields will fall across the board in the next couple of years, particularly in …
14th September 2023
We’ve revised up our projections for the S&P 500 and the 10-year Treasury yield, but still expect both to fall a bit by the end of this year. We have also tweaked our forecast for the US dollar. We had been projecting that the S&P 500 would struggle over …
The Riksbank looks all but certain to follow the ECB’s example and raise its key policy rate by 25bp next week, to 4.0%. However, while that could mark the end of its tightening cycle, on balance we think It is more likely to deliver one last hike, in …
