Despite the renewed hawkishness of central bankers elsewhere, the speech that followed the Bank of Canada’s policy announcement this week suggests that the bar to resume rate hikes remains high. Bank still comfortable with its “conditional pause” The …
10th March 2023
Powell in hawkish mood Fed Chair Jerome Powell confirmed this week that interest rates are set to rise higher than we previously anticipated. Powell noted that the strength of the January activity, employment and inflation data indicated that …
Brazil: is a Q2 rate cut plausible? The prevailing monetary policy story in Brazil so far this year has been one of ‘higher for longer’. We set out such a view recently , the BCB’s communications point this way and analyst expectations have shifted up. A …
The view that interest rates in developed markets may rise further and stay higher for longer than previously anticipated gained further traction this week following US Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s hawkish comments on Tuesday. Our US Economics team revised …
SA cabinet reshuffling no magic bullet The new configuration of South Africa’s cabinet, following this week’s reshuffling, is facing high expectations to turn around the power crisis and with it, the economy. But hurdles abound and we doubt that the …
GDP shrank in Q4 (to two decimal places) The third estimate of euro-zone GDP in Q4, released earlier this week, strengthened our conviction that the economy will underperform most forecasters’ expectations. The 0.1% q/q expansion in GDP in the fourth …
A closer look at Swiss inflation We learnt this week that Swiss headline inflation rose from 3.3% in January to 3.4% in February, driven by core inflation which increased by 0.2%-pts. (See here .) But the growth in underlying prices pressures appears to …
We have revised up our forecasts for real GDP and no longer think the economy will be quite as weak. This has very little to do with the 0.3% m/m rise in real GDP in January released this morning. Most of that was a rebound after the widespread strikes …
The National People’s Congress (NPC) is still in session. But the key outcomes are already known. Here are four takeaways. First, the economic targets and policy settings for this year were cautious and restrained . We discussed them in detail here . The …
Thailand forecast change The recent inflation data from Emerging Asia have made for encouraging reading, with headline inflation falling in seven out of the nine countries to have published February data. (See Chart 1.) Chart 1: Consumer Prices (%, …
Despite improvement, coal stocks remain low Fears over a shortage of coal in India have resurfaced in recent weeks amid expectations over another extremely hot summer, which would push up electricity demand. India remains heavily reliant on coal for …
Governor Phil Lowe’s proclamation at Wednesday’s AFR business summit that the RBA was closer to a pause in interest-rate increases has fed speculation of a dovish pivot on the part of the Board. Indeed, financial markets have tamped down their …
Case for end of YCC a touch weaker but still strong Contrary to our expectations, the Bank of Japan did not make any changes to Yield Curve Control (YCC) at today’s meeting. And the case for abandoning the policy now looks a little less compelling than a …
The future of OPEC+ on the table once more Reports have re-emerged in the past week that the UAE may be seeking an exit from OPEC+ and, if the group persists with its current quotas, tensions could boil over. This would support our view that oil …
9th March 2023
Very weak Q4 figures The fourth quarter GDP figures published over the past few weeks made for grim reading. GDP contracted in around half of the countries covered by our Emerging Asia services. Only India, Indonesia and the Philippines recorded decent …
3rd March 2023
Koruna strength will add to disinflation in Czechia The recent strength of the Czech koruna, which hit a 14-year high of 23.3/€ this week, adds to a number of disinflationary forces that are currently taking hold in the country. And we think that …
The latest data give the Bank of Canada plenty to think about ahead of its policy announcement next week. The data appear to lend support to the Bank’s view that a soft landing is still achievable, with the stagnation in fourth-quarter GDP followed by a …
Nigeria to take baby steps in pro-market direction The results of Nigeria’s presidential election were quickly challenged by the opposition this week, which is likely to keep investors on tenterhooks. And even once the dust settles, we suspect that …
Mixed labour market signals Labour market data released this week from Brazil, Chile and Colombia flew under the radar, but they provide a useful guide to inflation risks. The common theme is that labour markets are losing steam amid an economic slowdown. …
The February employment report and Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s testimony to Congress next week should give a clearer indication of whether recent talk of interest rates going “higher for longer” is justified. Longer, but not necessarily higher? Market rate …
Brexit looking a bit brighter The economic developments this week were generally positive, starting with news that the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, struck a deal with the EU on trading arrangements for Northern Ireland, officially known as the Windsor …
Another inflation surprise… The focus this week was on yet another higher-than-expected inflation print. The headline inflation rate edged down in February, but only to 8.5%, whereas a much bigger fall had been anticipated. And the core measure rose …
Sweden in recession This week brought yet more bad news about Sweden’s economy. Before the first release of Q4 GDP on 30 th January, the available monthly data pointed to an increase of around 0.5% q/q in the quarter as a whole. But those data were then …
Following the release of GDP data for Q4 (Q3 of FY22/23) this week, we now know that the economy grew by 6.7% in 2022 as a whole, one of the fastest growth rates anywhere in the world. Output was 10% above pre-pandemic levels at the end of last year. (See …
While Q4 GDP was broadly in line with our expectations , a look under the hood shows that the Australian consumer is on much weaker ground than we had anticipated. The starting point for our pessimism is the ongoing weakness in household incomes. Indeed, …
The government will lay out its economic agenda for this year at the annual session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), which kicks off on Sunday. Most of the key documents, including the government Work Report and annual Budget are published on the …
Large fall in January industrial output The 4.6% m/m plunge in industrial production in January partly reflected disruptions caused by the early start to the Lunar New Year this year. Oddly, unlike export volumes, which typically show an equally strong …
Egypt’s government feeling the hit Recent falls in the pound and rising borrowing costs forced Egypt’s Ministry of Finance to revise up its targets for debt and the budget deficit earlier this week, but we remain of the view that the government will be …
2nd March 2023
RBA’s hawkishness suggests rates will rise for a few more months However, softer incoming data suggest that the peak in rates isn’t far off Looming slowdown in activity and inflation opens door for rate cuts before year-end The RBA adopted a more …
1st March 2023
The common-sense place to start The release of the 2023 version of the Global Methane Tracker by the International Energy Agency (IEA) last week once again highlighted how carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions are far from the only challenge on the climate …
28th February 2023
Argentina-IMF relations set for a rockier phase Argentine officials headed to Washington this week to discuss the fourth review of the country’s IMF deal. The good news is that Argentina is likely to have met last year’s performance criteria, which …
24th February 2023
The larger-than-expected fall in CPI inflation in January was partly due to one-off effects, but still reduces the chance that the Bank of Canada will be forced to resume raising interest rates. Nevertheless, the renewed rises in the job vacancy rate …
Russia’s economy defied expectations in 2022 Russia’s war in Ukraine, which marks its one year anniversary this week, fundamentally changed the geopolitical and economic landscape in the region. From a macroeconomic perspective, one of the more surprising …
With markets responding to recent strong data by ramping up interest rate expectations, there doesn’t yet seem to be much need for the Fed to embark on a renewed hawkish turn. The income and spending data confirmed that real consumption rebounded …
Malaysia announces modest fiscal tightening Malaysia today announced a modest tightening of fiscal policy for 2023, but the most eye-catching element of the budget was a significant increase in infrastructure spending. The budget deficit is projected to …
The People’s Bank last cut policy rates in August. Worries about currency weakness then stayed its hand – plus a view that supply-side disruption linked to COVID would render further easing ineffective. Those concerns have since gone away. We had thought …
The more hawkish tone in financial markets this week is justified. Prior to this week, investors seemed to be optimistic that the previous increases in interest rates would be enough to bring inflation back down to the Bank of England’s 2.0% target, and …
After the US and the UK, it was the euro-zone’s turn to release better-than-expected activity data this week. Admittedly, we learned that German GDP fell by 0.4% q/q rather than 0.2% in Q4. This means the euro-zone economy probably stagnated in Q4 …
As we noted here , the Riksbank has made a big policy shift in the few weeks since Erik Thedéen took over as Governor. The most concrete changes were to raise its forecast for policy rates and announce the start of outright asset sales, but the Bank has …
In the final stretch before Nigeria’s elections on Saturday, we answer key questions about the polls and the economic consequences of the vote. All of our election-related research can be found here . What’s at stake? Nigeria is not only Sub-Saharan …
MPC minutes highlight divergence of views The MPC minutes of the RBI’s policy meeting from earlier this month – in which the pace of tightening slowed to a 25bp hike , taking the repo rate to 6.50% – confirm that there are significant differences of …
Fight over yield ceiling resumes Yield Curve Control (YCC) remains on borrowed time. The 10-year Japanese government bond (JGB) yield has consistently closed above the 0.5% ceiling since Monday last week and this week the Bank has once again had to step …
Over the past week we’ve learned two important pieces of information. First, the housing downturn, which has been the most rapid in Australia’s modern history so far, came to an abrupt halt in February as prices bounced back in Sydney and Melbourne. …
Morocco: drought, food, inflation and unrest The effects of another severe drought in Morocco have weighed on growth, pushed up inflation and fuelled pockets of unrest, but strong rainfall provides hope that the worst may soon be over. The drought that …
23rd February 2023
Governor Tiff Macklem reiterated this week that the Bank of Canada wants time to assess the impact of high interest rates, suggesting it will not respond to the strength of employment by immediately resuming interest rate hikes. The weakness of home …
17th February 2023
Colombia: here comes the state Concerns about the direction of policymaking under President Petro have once again lead to a sharp sell-off in Colombia’s financial markets this week. The catalyst this time was the government’s health reform bill, which was …
In a previous edition of the UK Economics Weekly we said that the CPI core services inflation and private sector pay figures released this week would prove pivotal in determining whether the Bank of England raises interest rates further or calls time on …
Echoing the unexpectedly large increase in payroll employment last month, January’s retail sales and manufacturing output data were unquestionably strong too. Admittedly, retail sales appear to have been boosted by problems with the seasonal adjustment, …
Tough times ahead for CEE, after Q4 contraction … Q4 GDP data released across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) this week were a mixed bag, but show that the regional slowdown at the end of 2022 was (broadly) as we had anticipated. We now know that the …
The ECB’s doves have been pretty quiet for the past few months, but Fabio Panetta – who is probably the most influential one these days – gave a moderately dovish speech this week. Among other things, he suggested that inflation may already have peaked. …
