Buying a first home has become increasingly difficult over the past 30 years. A high income is still essential, but other circumstances such as whether the individual is buying as part of a joint-income couple or has significant family wealth have become …
2nd October 2023
We suspect that before the end of the year, the ECB will announce that it will end PEPP reinvestments before the end of 2024. This would allow the ECB to shrink its balance sheet more quickly and reinforce the message that monetary policy will remain …
The PMIs for September suggest that manufacturing activity across Emerging Asia remained weak last month. Worryingly, the PMIs point to a further rise in price pressures across the region, with the input and output price subcomponents both rising. The …
Policy support should drive a turnaround The PMI surveys suggest another month of stable economic activity in September. A continued acceleration in construction activity appears to have offset a further softening in services activity. Meanwhile, …
Our in-house metals demand proxies show that growth was subdued in mid-2023. There could be some pick-up in the coming months owing to additional Chinese infrastructure spending, but we think a more sustainable revival in global demand will only emerge in …
29th September 2023
Fair value calculations combine valuation analysis with a forward-looking view of rents. As such, these estimates reinforce our existing view that there is scope for declines in euro-zone yields, albeit limited. They also confirm that these falls are very …
The Italian government’s decision to raise its deficit targets suggests it is trying to get away with as little fiscal tightening as possible. With EU fiscal rules set to come back into force next year, that raises the risk of tensions escalating between …
Figures released today show that the worst for Vietnam’s economy is now over, but that growth remains subdued by past standards. With the economy on the mend, but inflation becoming a growing concern, we have taken out the rate cuts we originally had …
Global goods trade fell at its fastest pace since the pandemic in July and the timelier trade and survey data point to further declines in August and September. What’s more, given that we still expect several advanced economies to fall into mild …
28th September 2023
The drivers of Brazil’s recent period of rapid growth seem to be the subject of a heated debate at the central bank – and policymakers’ conclusions will play a big role in determining the pace and scale of the easing cycle. For our part, we think the key …
The direct hit to the economy from even an extended government shutdown beginning next week would be modest. But it could also result in delays to key data releases, including the September employment and CPI reports due over the next couple of weeks. At …
The narrowing in India’s current account deficit in the four quarters to Q2 was mainly due to the shrinking of the goods trade deficit. Looking ahead, the recent jump in oil prices won’t prevent the deficit narrowing to around 1.5% of GDP this year, and …
As we anticipated , housing starts in England spiked to their highest level on record in Q2 as builders began work early to avoid having to conform with the Future Homes Standard. More timely monthly data show that starts slumped in July and August in …
Nigeria’s policy shift has stalled in recent weeks as officials have responded to a growing political backlash by reverting to the interventionist tendencies of the Buhari administration. The result is that the naira has plunged on the parallel market and …
The latest euro-zone money and credit data show that tighter ECB policy is continuing to weigh on households’ and firms’ borrowing, as well as influencing what they do with their savings. The weakness in money and lending growth supports our view that the …
27th September 2023
Financial risks generally look quite low in most major EMs as current account deficits have narrowed this year and banking sectors remain in strong shape. But there are some areas of weakness, including large currency risks in parts of Eastern Europe …
26th September 2023
The Hungarian central bank (MNB) delivered another 100bp interest rate cut (to 13.00%) and simplified its monetary policy toolkit at today’s meeting, paving the way for the second phase of the easing cycle in the coming months. The hawkish tone of the …
Rising bankruptcy filings by large corporations are another reason to doubt that the economy will continue to grow at close to its potential rate, as the Federal Reserve now seems to believe. Admittedly, the bankruptcy data suggest that consumers and …
The leisure sector is now feeling the impact of the cost-of-living crisis, with rising vacancy and declining rents. But we don’t think the retail sector will follow in its footsteps. Households are likely to continue to shift spending away from expensive …
The weakness in German construction activity has raised questions about whether a slowdown in new office supply could offset the weakness in demand and prevent a rise in vacancy. But we think that on balance it won’t be enough and that rental growth will …
The sharp slowdown in broad money growth since late last year suggests that higher interest rates are working by reducing households’ and firms’ demand for borrowing, which should lead to softer activity and lower inflation. This supports our view that a …
Investment in the green transition is unlikely to rise quickly enough this decade to help achieve net zero by 2050. But a greater focus on areas including renewables and electric vehicles will still probably push up investment’s share of global GDP by …
25th September 2023
The abandonment of Yield Curve Control would probably prompt the Bank of Japan to reduce its bloated holdings of government bonds, which could push up long-term bond yields. However, there are good reasons to think that the fiscal consequences wouldn’t be …
The following is a presentation that our Chief Property Economist Andrew Burrell gave to the District Conference in Barcelona on 21st September, 2023. … Where next for euro-zone …
22nd September 2023
The September Flash PMIs add to evidence that economic activity in the US and Europe is weakening. This supports our view that the Fed, ECB, and Bank of England have finished hiking interest rates. Our estimate of the DM average composite PMI edged down …
Although the 10-year Treasury yield rose further to a post-Global-Financial-Crisis high of ~4.5% in the wake of this week’s FOMC meeting, we continue to forecast that it will drop back to 3.75% by the end of this year and to 3.25% by the end of next year. …
With most European G10 central banks now at, or very close to, the ends of their tightening cycles, this note examines where the European G10 currencies stand and how we see the outlook for the main euro cross-rates. In short, we think the Swiss franc …
We held a Drop-In yesterday to discuss the latest policy meetings of the Fed, ECB, and Bank of England and what they might mean for the future path of policy and financial markets. (See the recording here .) This Update answers several of the questions …
We now expect the Bank of Japan to hike its policy rate – for the first time in sixteen years – next January. While we think global markets are generally braced for such an event, there’s a clear risk nonetheless that it puts pressure on long-term bonds …
The Bank of Japan still sounded dovish when it kept policy settings unchanged today. But with inflation proving stickier than expected, we expect the Bank to lift its policy rate in January and have pencilled in the full-fledged dismantling of Yield Curve …
We expect long-dated government bond yields in most developed market (DM) economies to fall over the remainder of this year and next, as central banks shift focus to monetary easing. But, in some cases, we now predict those falls to be smaller than we had …
21st September 2023
We think that both the Fed and the BoE are finished hiking interest rates and will cut by more than investors are discounting over the next couple of years. We also expect the US and UK economies to tip into mild recessions before long. These similarities …
Despite ending the interest rate hiking cycle today, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) succeeded in convincing financial markets that interest rates will remain high for some time. As market interest rate expectations determine fixed mortgage rates, the …
The South African Reserve Bank left interest rates on hold today at 8.25% and continued to emphasise that inflation risks remain tilted to the upside, suggesting that it is in no rush to begin loosening policy. Indeed, the SARB is likely to be a …
Although high “carry” emerging market (EM) currencies have held on to most of their gains during the greenback’s recent rally, we still think the outperformance of these currencies is likely to reverse over the coming quarters amid growing headwinds for …
Note: We’ll be discussing September’s Fed, ECB and Bank of England policy decisions in a Drop-In at 3pm BST today. Register here to join. The surprise decision by the Bank of England to leave interest rates unchanged at 5.25% today probably means that …
Commercial construction surveys have shown improving activity in recent months, despite high interest rates and a slowing economy. Our Financial Conditions Indices (FCIs) suggest that might be because market sentiment and credit conditions have, so far, …
The SNB’s decision to keep rates unchanged at 1.75% was a surprise. Although the Bank left the door open for further hikes, we think rates are now at their peak. And with inflation set to fall further, we expect the SNB to start cutting rates next year. …
Despite all the talk of “higher for longer”, we believe that the global monetary policy tightening cycle is drawing to a close. In Q4, any final rate hikes in advanced economies will coincide with a number of cuts in emerging markets. And as we head into …
Following today’s rate hikes, the Riksbank and Norges Bank are now at, or close to, the end of their tightening cycles. Both central banks’ new projections suggest that they are more likely than not to raise rates one more time. But whether or not they …
The Fed doubled down on its mantra that interest rates will remain higher for longer, with its updated projections suggesting that the economy will enjoy the softest of soft landings and core inflation will still take some considerable time to return to …
20th September 2023
The prevalence of fixed-rate debt suggests the Fed’s aggressive rate hikes will continue to deal less damage to the economy than they might have done in the past. But higher rates are still likely to take a further toll on consumption and business …
The weeks leading up to Taiwan’s presidential election in January could be marked by another rise in tensions with China. The most likely outcome of the vote is another DPP presidency. While Lai Ching-te would be a new pair of hands, his election wouldn’t …
The news that UK Prime Minster Sunak is set to further dilute the government’s climate policies demonstrates that when the political going gets tough, climate policies are the first to fall by the wayside. From a macro perspective, the biggest risk is …
The United Auto Workers (UAW) strike action aimed at the Big Three automakers should have only a trivial effect on the broader economy. More generally, despite the tightness of labour market conditions and the recent surge in prices, work stoppages …
19th September 2023
On Tuesday 19th September, our Energy and Global Economics teams discussed the oil market outlook and its implications for inflation and monetary policy in an online briefing for clients. Watch the recording here . We are not convinced that the increase …
The rise in oil prices, and upwards revision to our 2024 oil price forecast, will have only a small impact on EM inflation and won’t stop it from falling further. The much bigger upside risks to our inflation and interest rate forecasts stem from core and …
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% …
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 …
18th September 2023
