This article has been updated with additional charts and analysis since it was first published. Firms downbeat about output in Q3 June’s activity data were broadly positive for Q2, with both the industrial production and capital goods shipments data …
28th July 2023
Sentiment improves, but is still depressed The European Commission's Economic Sentiment Indicators for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) generally ticked up in July, but our regional measure still points to weak GDP growth at the start of Q3. Economic …
Reforms to take a back seat for now In an otherwise quiet week, the big news from the past few days is that India’s parliament has approved a no-confidence vote lodged by opposition parties against Prime Minister Modi’s BJP-led government. The motion has …
Germany still the weak link National data released so far suggest that the euro-zone economy held up better than we had anticipated in Q2, with Germany still the laggard among major economies. We continue to think that monetary tightening will take an …
This article has been updated with additional analysis and charts since it was first published. Taiwan GDP (Q2) Taiwan’s economy rebounded strongly in the second quarter of the year, driven by a jump in exports and strong consumer spending. However, we …
Global goods trade rose slightly in May, but timelier data point to a renewed fall in June. And as spending patterns continue to normalise away from goods towards services at the same time as higher interest rates start to bite, it will probably be …
The Bank of Japan announced today that it will allow 10-year yields to rise above the 0.5% ceiling – which it says it is retaining – to a new “just-in-case” cap of 1.0%. With signs mounting of a virtuous cycle between inflation and wages, the chances of …
In the latest of our monthly EM Drop-Ins, Shilan Shah le a team of economists from across our EM and Markets services to answer client questions on what’s happening in EM macro while addressing key issues including: Which EMs are benefitting from the …
Strong economic growth in France and Spain The big increases in Q2 GDP in Spain and particularly France suggest that the euro-zone has so far coped with policy tightening much better than feared. However, the France data were flattered by temporary …
Real household incomes falling at rapid pace Data released last week underline that Japanese households are struggling to cope with rising living costs. While labour income rose at a robust pace, a slump in government transfer payments resulted in a 1.6% …
The Bank of Japan announced today that it will allow 10-year yields to rise to 1.0% instead of the current ceiling of 0.5%. We still think that a slowdown in inflation will convince the Bank to keep its short-term policy rate unchanged over the coming …
The big news out of Australia this week was that both headline and trimmed-mean inflation in Q2 were lower than most had anticipated. However, we still think it’s too soon for the RBA to declare victory in the war on inflation. After all, services …
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Retail sales soften anew The sharp decline in retail sales in June suggests that sales volumes fell for a third consecutive quarter in Q2. With the RBA sounding increasingly …
While both the Fed and ECB appear to be nearing the end of their tightening cycles, the strength of the US economy relative to the euro-zone suggests to us the euro is likely to fall further against the greenback over the coming months . Today’s …
27th July 2023
Mbappé or not, Saudi gov’t focussed on sports The Saudi Pro League went from the back pages to the front pages this week as Al-Hilal (a football club recently acquired by the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund) made a world record $335mn bid for PSG’s Kylian …
The ECB’s decision to raise rates by 25bp today and Christine Lagarde’s guidance that another hike was a “decisive maybe” will not have surprised anybody. On balance, we think the Bank will probably nudge rates up to 4% in September or October and keep …
The latest RICS survey signalled a slight improvement in occupier and investment sentiment in Q2, but confidence remained low by historic standards. Tight credit conditions and a poor economic backdrop in the second half of this year suggest sentiment …
We expect the July employment report to show a continued gradual slowdown in employment growth and a decline in wage growth to a two-year low. That should give Fed officials a little more confidence that the moderation in core inflation will continue. The …
Economy shrugs off impact of higher rates The 2.4% annualised gain in second-quarter real GDP growth, which means the economy expanded at close to its potential pace over the first half of the year, suggests that higher interest rates are having …
Our China Activity Proxy (CAP) suggests that China’s economy contracted in June as the service sector spluttered. Policy support means the economy should return to growth before long. But the pace of future expansion will be more modest than in the past. …
ECB hikes and leaves options open As was universally expected, the ECB raised interest rates by a further 25bp today and indicated that further hikes are possible but not certain. At the press conference we expect the main message to be that policy will …
“The Boy” is back Much ink has been spilled – not least by ourselves – on the potential impacts of the return of El Niño conditions on commodities and economies. It’s fair to say that some of the analysis we have stumbled across has been towards the …
25bps hike and peak in sight Reverting to a 25bps hike rather than 50bps Rate hikes may come to a halt a bit sooner than most analysts and investors expect After a lengthy pause, rates to fall further than investors expect in late 2024 and in 2025 We’ll …
Policymakers at the South African Reserve Bank are keen to emphasise that their work to tame the “inflation monster” is not over, leaving open the possibility of additional monetary tightening. The two most likely triggers would be, first, if loadshedding …
Surveyors become more pessimistic about commercial outlook Following a slight improvement in Q1, surveyors reported that occupier demand fell back in Q2. All sectors saw a retrenchment, with offices seeing the largest decline to a net balance of -21%. …
As everyone expected, the Fed increased its policy rate by an additional 25bp today, taking the fed funds target range to between 5.25% and 5.50% but, while officials are possibly still eyeing one final hike later this year, futures markets are mostly …
26th July 2023
Policy rate now at peak, as disinflation will persuade Fed to stand pat in September As everyone expected, the Fed increased its policy rate by an additional 25bp today, taking the fed funds target range to between 5.25% and 5.50% but, while officials are …
The sky-high valuations of some touted winners from AI have given rise to claims that their share prices have risen to unsustainably high levels. Is there anything we can learn from the dot com era? The best-performing stock in the S&P 500 in the …
The continued rise in the valuations of “risky” assets relative to “safe” ones mostly seems to reflect growing confidence in the economic outlook. We think that optimism will be disappointed and that risk premia may rise again – and valuations may fall – …
Tighter monetary policy has had a big impact on financial conditions in the euro-zone, but we think its effect on activity is still in its early stages . Even if the region falls into a mild recession, it will be some time before policymakers are …
If the Fed’s tightening cycle ends today, as we expect, then the yield curve will be unusually inverted for this point in the monetary policy cycle. We think it will remain so until next year. Although money markets discount some chance of further …
Total returns were negative again in Q2 at -2.0% q/q. This was dragged down by the office sector, where values fell by 7% and quarterly returns were -5.8%, with all other sectors outperforming the all-property number. Nevertheless, we still think office …
Sub-Saharan Africa is set to record its weakest growth this year, outside of the pandemic, since 2016 as the drags from domestic headwinds are exacerbated by a less favourable external environment. Our GDP growth forecasts across the region are generally …
Surge in new home sales begins to ease New home sales fell by 2.5% m/m in June to 697,000 annualised, although this still left them almost 25% above their June 2022 level. (See Chart 1.) Having risen since March, this levelling off in sales is in line …
Recently-announced measures by Argentina’s government are merely stopgap solutions and appear to be aimed at staving off a disorderly devaluation ahead of upcoming elections rather than stabilising the economy. Ultimately, the way out of the current …
Russia and Turkey have had a strong first half of the year, but growth across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) remains depressed and we don’t expect a meaningful recovery until 2024. While inflation pressures are building in Russia and Turkey and further …
Data released this week show that tighter monetary policy has led to a sharp slowdown in money and lending growth, consistent on past form with falling GDP. Together with the latest business surveys, this supports our non-consensus view that the euro-zone …
Comparing the proper inflation gauges reveals that core inflation in Japan remains far lower than elsewhere. And with most of the recent pick-up in core inflation reflecting soaring imports costs, the Bank of Japan’s assessment that above-target inflation …
Economic activity slowing and inflation weakening faster than anticipated However, labour market still very tight and services inflation still accelerating Bank to hike to 4.35% next week, but September rate hike is a close call With inflation …
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. RBA will deliver at least one more rate hike The faster-than-expected slowdown in inflation in Q2 may convince the RBA that it has done enough to rein in price pressures. …
The Mexican peso’s relentless rise against the US dollar and most other major currencies is increasingly at odds with macroeconomic fundamentals. We think the peso is vulnerable to an abrupt fall over the coming months if, as we expect, risk sentiment …
25th July 2023
New CBN governor stumbles at the first hurdle The Central Bank of Nigeria’s decision to raise its policy rate by just 25bp, to 18.75%, was underwhelming and suggests that officials are trying to balance tackling inflation against the president’s wishes …
Our forecast that in late 2024 and 2025 the Bank of England will cut interest rates further than investors expect suggests that UK gilt yields will fall and close the current gap with US yields. Admittedly, there’s still a risk that inflation in the UK …
The sharp rise in the share of the population with a disability may reflect the legacy of the pandemic. But with the rise in disability rates doing little to keep people out of work, it isn’t necessarily a problem for the economy. According to the …
Chinese equities enjoyed one of their best days in years today, and we think they may continue to outperform equities elsewhere over the rest of this year. But the longer-term prospects for China’s stock market still look relatively unappealing to us. …
The Israeli government’s decision to press ahead with its controversial judicial reforms won’t necessarily cause foreign investment into Israel to dry up, but the direction of policymaking threatens to push the economy onto a permanently lower growth …
House prices rose again in May House prices rose for the fourth consecutive month in May according to Case-Shiller. The resurgence in prices has coincided with an uptick in home sales from February to May, in turn driven by a moderation in mortgage rates. …
Global growth in steel output stagnating Global steel production growth picked up in June, albeit only to a pace consistent with stagnant growth. With the rise in output in China on shaky ground and weak demand beginning to weigh on supply in other …
