The EM manufacturing PMI remained at a three-year high in May but the picture is becoming increasingly nuanced at a country level. Meanwhile, the PMIs also showed price pressures rose again last month, matching the signs of recent strength seen in other …
3rd June 2024
Our initial response to Claudia Sheinbaum’s victory in Mexico’s presidential election can be found here . We also held a Drop-in earlier today. This Update summarises the key points that we discussed and answers some of the client questions that we …
Elections in South Africa, India, and Mexico have generated sizeable reactions in financial markets. Those moves may not last – often the immediate reaction to political events proves overdone – but they highlight the potential for electoral surprises to …
The latest manufacturing PMIs suggest that the recovery in global industry has continued to gather momentum so far in Q2 and that price pressures have increased somewhat. But that probably won’t prevent central banks from loosening policy in the coming …
The decision by OPEC+ to keep oil production lower over the rest of this year means that oil sectors in the Gulf will grow more slowly than we had previously anticipated and we have revised down our GDP growth forecasts for this year and next. The …
Having lagged behind other emerging market (EM) currencies for most of the post-pandemic period, the Polish zloty has lead the pack over the past six months. While we think that most of this rally has now run its course, we expect the zloty to stay …
Fall in ISM manufacturing index suggests economy losing momentum The drop in the ISM manufacturing index in May adds to the sense that the economy is losing momentum, while the drop back in the prices paid index should soothe concerns about a potential …
With the government debt-to-GDP ratio likely to trend up over the medium term, and the budget deficit set to stay above 3% of GDP, we suspect that France will be subject to further rating downgrades in future. The risks are significantly higher in the …
South Africa’s final election results confirmed that support for the ANC fell far short of a majority, leaving it reliant on a coalition with one of the larger opposition parties to stay in power. The newsflow over the weekend suggests that the chances of …
PMI plummets due to tight policy and weaker credit conditions South Africa’s manufacturing PMI plummeted in May and, while we expect conditions to improve as the electricity situation continues to stabilise, alongside recent activity data it underlines …
OPEC+ keep screws tight for another quarter The agreement by OPEC+ to rollover voluntary production cuts for another quarter will, in our view, push the crude oil market into a sizeable deficit in Q3. Oil supply will be more constrained than we had …
Russia outperforming, CEE continues to struggle The manufacturing PMIs for May show a divergence in the region, with conditions improving slightly in Czechia and Russia’s economy continuing to boom. But industry weakened sharply in Poland and Turkish …
Sheinbaum is president-elect, Morena coalition on course for majority The ruling Morena candidate, Claudia Sheinbaum, is on course to be declared the country’s next (and first female) president after Sunday’s election and the party’s coalition also …
Inflation surprises to the upside, bumpy disinflation lies ahead The stronger-than-expected rise in Turkish inflation to 75.45% y/y in May (consensus 74.8%) is slightly disappointing. It had looked like price pressures were easing in recent months, but …
The manufacturing PMIs for Emerging Asia remained weak in May but have been a poor guide to the hard data on activity over the past year anyway. However, the PMIs have been a decent guide to price pressures and the latest data suggest the risk of a …
This year’s minimum wage increase will be a bit smaller than we had anticipated. And with the looser labour market putting downward pressure on wage growth among workers not covered by the minimum wage and awards, we expect wage growth to slow faster than …
While house price growth accelerated rather sharply in May, stretched affordability points to a renewed slowdown. Indeed, most leading indicators point to a renewed moderation in price growth. Allowing for seasonal swings, house price growth across the …
The European Central Bank is likely to become the first major advanced economy central bank to cut rates since the end of the pandemic when it meets this Thursday – easing policy ahead of the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England. It’s a move that’s …
2nd June 2024
Modi on the brink Narendra Modi appears well on course for a third consecutive term as India’s Prime Minister according to exit polls that project another big parliamentary majority for the BJP. Admittedly, exit polls have a patchy track record in India …
The US dollar has eased back a bit further against other G10 currencies this week as another round of slightly softer US inflation data dampened the recent rebound in US interest rate expectations. By contrast, today’s upside surprise in euro-zone …
31st May 2024
The weaker-than-expected first-quarter GDP data and downward revision to fourth-quarter growth caused markets to price in a higher chance that the Bank of Canada will cut interest rates next week. With consumption growth strong, however, we still think …
The fall in Treasury yields over the past two days has failed to lift equities, partly because of waning AI hype weighing on the market. That’s a contrast to much of the past year or so, when the opposite has been true. If both of these forces combine in …
South Africa’s looming coalition talks Two days have passed since South Africa’s polling day and, with over 70% of votes counted, the ANC’s vote share is set to be fall well short of a majority. A coalition with one of the larger opposition party now …
Trump conviction won’t sway the election Trump campaign won’t be decided by courts We doubt that Donald Trump’s New York felony conviction on charges of falsifying business documents will have any significant impact on the presidential election …
Russian tax hikes: important but not large enough The tax hikes announced by the Russian finance ministry this week will help to plug the hole created by the growing military budget, but won’t deliver the scale of fiscal tightening needed to stop the …
The US dollar has fallen back across the board in May as expected interest rate differentials have shifted against the US vis-à-vis many other economies, and risk sentiment has recovered. Overall, the greenback remains caught in something of a crosswind. …
Government spending set to reaccelerate The official PMIs for May published today were disappointing. Taken at face value, they imply that the improvement in economic momentum earlier this year has stalled. One reason appears to be that government …
The key event next week will of course be Thursday’s ECB meeting which we have previewed separately in our ECB Watch . In brief, we think the Bank will go ahead and cut its deposit rate from 4.00% to 3.75% but now expect it to leave rates on hold in July …
Our View: We expect equities to outperform most other assets as a bubble fuelled by AI-enthusiasm continues to inflate, supported by a backdrop of resilient economic growth and monetary easing cycles In particular, we expect US equities to continue to …
With both Labour and the Conservatives this week ruling out increases in income tax, national insurance and VAT, it remains difficult to see how cuts to public services can be avoided after the election. (For all our election analyses, see here .) But …
Growth softer than expected, but strength under the surface The 1.7% annualised gain in GDP in the first quarter was weaker than the Bank of Canada’s forecast for an above-potential 2.8% increase. With consumption growth looking much stronger than …
Having pre-committed to doing so, we think the ECB will cut rates next week. But given the jump in services inflation in May, we now expect a pause in July. We forecast the ECB to cut its deposit rate to 3% by year-end. Having agreed to do so at their …
What to watch after Mexico’s election Mexicans head to the polls on Sunday to elect thousands of local officials, a new congress and the country’s next president. We have covered the macroeconomic implications of the election in several pieces – all of …
The decision by OPEC+ to move its crunch meeting from in-person on Saturday in Vienna to online on Sunday, historically a sign of an uneventful meeting, suggests that members will rollover production cuts into the second half of this year. But a host of …
Inflation data still too strong, but slump in real spending the bigger story As expected, the PCE deflator data suggest that, although not quite as bad as the first three months of the year, inflation was still running above target in April. At the same …
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Economy booming on eve of election The GDP figures for Q1 confirm that India’s economy slowed a touch at the start of the year but was nonetheless still booming on the eve of the …
Vietnam rate hike risk The risk of monetary tightening in Vietnam has risen over the past few weeks due to concerns about the currency and inflation. We still think a rate hike is unlikely. But even if the central bank (SBV) did raise rates now, we think …
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Increase in inflation won’t stop ECB from cutting next week May’s increases in headline and core inflation – and jump in services inflation to a seven-month high – won’t stop the …
The US puts up trade barriers, will Europe follow? The US announced that it is ratcheting up tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, and solar panels. We covered the announcement and its implications across our Climate, Global, …
Net lending subdued on the back of rising interest rates Following two consecutive quarters of declines, net lending to property reached £891m in April. The increase was driven by a £731m rise in lending to standing investments, but development lending …
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Drag on activity from high interest rates continues to fade While April’s money and lending figures suggest the recent rebound in the housing market is cooling and households …
Acceleration in growth, with rebalancing under the surface The strength in Turkey’s economy in Q1 – GDP expanded by a whopping 2.4% q/q – was driven by a large boost from net trade while private consumption growth slowed sharply. This offers signs that …
Persistently high mortgage rates cause prices to stagnate Despite a small increase in the Nationwide house price index in May, the big picture is that the slight rise in mortgage rates since the start of the year has caused house prices to stagnate. The …
Will PM Modi secure another majority? Voting in India’s seven-week election extravaganza ends tomorrow, and results are due to be announced on Tuesday 4 th June. Clients can see all of our election insights here . We will also be discussing the election …
Fertility rate may have fallen to fresh lows According to some estimates , Japan’s fertility rate fell from 1.26 in 2022 to 1.21 last year. Although higher than in some other Asian economies, for Japan this would still be a fresh record low. (See Chart …
Disinflation stalling The economic data released this week once again highlighted the dilemma the Reserve Bank of Australia finds itself in. On the one hand, the April Monthly CPI Indicator showed the second consecutive rise in both headline and trimmed …
This report was first published on Friday 31st May covering the official PMIs. We added commentary on the Caixin manufacturing PMI on Monday 3rd June and the Caixin services and composite PMIs on Wednesday 5th June. Recovery still ongoing The PMIs for May …
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. GDP should rebound this quarter On balance, the modest decline in industrial production and the rebound in retail sales in April point to a decent rebound in GDP this quarter. …
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Slowdown in underlying inflation has further to run May’s rebound in inflation in Tokyo largely reflects a jump in electricity inflation that has further to run, but underlying …
The early results from South Africa’s general election suggest that the African National Congress (ANC) will fall short of securing a majority, and may be forced into forming a coalition with the centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA), or either (or both) …
30th May 2024
