First-time buyer (FTB) loan originations have been weak for over a year now. That’s mainly down to higher mortgage rates which have made buying too expensive for many younger adults. And as we think mortgage rates are unlikely to drop much below 6.0% …
5th December 2023
Inflows into EM bond and equity markets have picked up over the past month, particularly in Turkey where optimism around the policy U-turn seems to be building. Capital flows into EMs may be bumpy in the very near term as global growth disappoints, but …
Given the high bar for further rate hikes, we’re more confident than ever that the Reserve Bank of Australia is done tightening policy. That said, there is a good chance that the cash rate will remain at its cyclical peak for longer than we currently …
Rising OPEC+ output in Q2 2024 should leave global crude supply less constrained than we had previously expected. This, together with only modest growth in global oil demand, should push the crude market into a small surplus in Q4. Accordingly, we have …
4th December 2023
Although we expect US equity office REITs to benefit further from falling long-dated Treasury yields, we continue to think that their long-run prospects are blighted by a structural reduction in demand. Real estate was the best-performing sector of the …
We expect the Treasury yield curve to “disinvert” in 2024, as we think the Fed will cut rates by more than investors expect and term premia will remain at least as high as they are now. The spread between the yields of 10-year and 2-year Treasuries has …
Brazil’s first sovereign ESG bond arrived last month amid much fanfare, but the reality is that any “ESG premium” looked fairly limited to us. And we think ESG bond premia, in general, will likely remain low. Brazil’s government issued its 7-year US …
Our view about relative economic and interest rate prospects in Sweden and the euro-zone suggests that the Swedish krona’s recent rebound may prove durable. In fact, given how far below “fair value” it appears to us, we think that the krona will rise …
The latest batch of state election results suggests that support for Prime Minister Modi’s BJP remains firmly intact and that it is clearly in the driving seat to secure another victory in next year’s general election. That reduces the risk of big fiscal …
While there have been growing concerns about public finances in some euro-zone countries recently, prospects for Greece’s debt are quite bright. Steady economic growth, large primary surpluses and low interest expenditure should keep the debt ratio on a …
The manufacturing PMI surveys have overstated the weakness in industrial production over the past couple years. But, even taking this into account, November’s PMIs suggest that while global industry might be past the worst, it looks set to end 2023 and …
1st December 2023
The emerging market manufacturing PMIs for November were a mixed bag – although most headline indices edged up, they remained below 50 in over half the countries that we track, largely due to weak external demand. But price pressures did ease across the …
China PMI surveys suggest that the economy flatlined in November, but there was good news for commodity demand with the relative strength in the construction PMI. We suspect that underlying activity is stronger than the PMIs and that this will support …
With hindsight, part of the boom in the industrial sector seen during and after the pandemic now looks like a bubble. That raises the risk that the overhang of assets started during that period of irrational exuberance will now weigh on rents. However, …
The November PMIs for Emerging Asia generally nudged up a touch but remained weak overall. The outlook for manufacturing sector in the region remains bleak in the near term as elevated inventory levels, high interest rates and subdued foreign demand weigh …
Our AI work has identified data centres as a clear winner from these innovations. That the sector is already in rude health is borne out by the latest real estate data. But it remains to be seen if it can ever reach the scale to displace more traditional …
30th November 2023
In this Global Economics Update , we describe eight of the biggest risks to our economic forecasts for 2024. The unusual nature of this cycle and uncertainties surrounding the transmission of monetary policy mean that the biggest risks relate to central …
We think that long-term sovereign bond yields in New Zealand – which are currently among the highest in the developed world – will fall back to similar levels as those elsewhere over the next couple of years. Bonds in New Zealand have joined in the …
The Bank of Korea (BoK) today left its policy rate unchanged (at 3.5%) for a seventh consecutive meeting, and hinted that interest rates would remain elevated as it continues to clamp down on inflation. While we think interest rates will be left on hold …
This page was first published on Thursday 30 th November, covering the official PMIs. We added commentary on the Caixin manufacturing PMI on Friday 1 st December , and the Caixin services and composite PMI on Tuesday 5 th December. Reality may not be as …
Consensus more pessimistic in 2024, but view further out improves The latest IPF Consensus Survey shows that forecasters have downwardly revised their expectations for 2024, as a downgrade in capital value growth outweighed some improvement in rents. That …
29th November 2023
While global goods trade rose in September, timelier indicators suggest that it has softened so far in Q4. And with props to Chinese exports likely to prove temporary, and advanced economies set to slow, we think that the general weakness of world trade …
The usually strong relationship between NAHB homebuilder confidence and housing starts has broken down recently. That can be explained by the composition of the NAHB’s builder members, which are largely smaller private homebuilders. Unlike their larger …
With the post-pandemic global monetary tightening cycle now drawing to a close, this Update takes stock of where interest rate expectations in the G10 economies stand and what that implies for the currency outlook over the coming quarter as more and more …
With COP-season upon us once again, this Update offers a brief guide to this year’s spectacle. In short, with the incentives for countries to act in their self-interests as strong as ever, the prospect of an effective global agreement to tackle the …
Next year is one of the busiest ever in the EM electoral calendar, with votes taking place in countries accounting for over a third of EM GDP. The upcoming votes will have important implications for geopolitics and, potentially, global supply chains …
Even though we expect the Fed to go into cutting mode within the next six months and the 10-year Treasury yield to fall below 4% in 2024, we don’t expect this to provide any respite for real estate. Indeed, given we think the 10-year yield will range …
The falls in the Egyptian pound over the past year have increased the size of commercial banks’ net FX assets, but what has flown under the radar is banks’ growing exposure to the government’s FX debt. So long as the authorities get the IMF deal back on …
In much of the world, interest rates are likely to settle at higher levels than was the case prior to the pandemic. But China is a key exception, with its shrinking population, slowing productivity gains, low inflation rate and increasingly-heavy debt …
We expect 10-year Treasuries to outperform 2-year Treasuries between now and the end of 2024, even though we forecast the 2-year Treasury yield to fall by more than the 10-year Treasury yield in that period. The Treasury yield curve went through a period …
28th November 2023
Our recent r* work reinforces the view that property yields will stay relatively high longer term. That implies global returns in low single digits over the next decade or so, well below pre-pandemic averages. Our recent Global Economics Focus summarises …
27th November 2023
Guyana’s oil production looks set to grow quickly over the next few years even if the total volume can only play a small role in raising global supply. That said, substantial reserves and low break-even costs should mean that it can continue to produce …
Following a temporary reversal in Q3, EM inflation has started to fall again in the last few months. While this is set to continue, we think it marks the start of a second phase in the EM disinflation process – one that will be characterised by a much …
A close look at the data suggests that the boom in investment in Mexico this year is due to a surge in transport infrastructure construction on the Yucatán Peninsula rather than a boom in nearshoring-related investment. With these projects nearing …
The S&P Global PMIs have provided misleading signals about the strength of activity in the US and Europe this year. But, for what it’s worth, the flash surveys for November suggest that DMs are ending 2023 on a weak note, with activity stagnating or …
24th November 2023
We think the yields of long-dated local-currency government bonds in Asia will generally fall further by the end of next year, and that most regional currencies will continue to make ground against the US dollar. But we suspect some of the intra-regional …
23rd November 2023
The South African Reserve Bank opted against responding to last month’s larger-than-expected rise in inflation with an interest rate hike, leaving the repo rate unchanged at 8.25% today. But officials continued to strike a hawkish tone and it looks like …
Despite the Riksbank Executive Board insisting that it might raise interest rates again in the coming months, we would be very surprised if it does so. Instead, we think the next move will be a rate cut next May, and expect the Bank to then cut rates …
While subdued capital spending has contributed to the slump in productivity, the recent plunge in the capital/labour ratio can only partly be explained by the surge in net migration. It is now a well-documented fact that Australia’s labour productivity …
Coal prices in both Europe and Asia will fall next year as growth in demand eases. But the fall in Europe should be larger as we expect demand there to outright contract. This should ensure that coal prices in Asia trade at a premium to prices in Europe …
22nd November 2023
The Israeli government’s budget deficit is widening sharply and we think it will breach 5% of GDP next year. Provided the length of the war and the increase in the deficit are short-lived, we don’t think this will cause funding problems and the …
US equities’ outperformance this year is due almost entirely to the few industries that include “Big Tech” firms, as the rest of the US stock market fared similarly to equities in the rest of the world. While we expect a broader stock market rally next …
We continue to forecast a small fall in euro-zone yield spreads over Bunds in the next year or so. However, rising risks to the upside in recent months and differences in fiscal positions between countries may mean that the relative picture for some …
One year into his premiership, Anwar Ibrahim has made very limited progress on his key reform objectives. Given his weak position in parliament, we don’t anticipate this will change anytime soon, and we remain downbeat on the country’s medium-term …
Economic growth in Singapore rebounded strongly in the third quarter of the year, but we don’t expect this strength to last. A combination of weaker global demand and high interest rates will cause growth to slow over the next couple of quarters. The …
Faced with much higher interest costs, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland outlined very little in the way of new spending measures in the Fall Economic Statement today. Most of the focus was on non-monetary housing-related policies that will have little …
21st November 2023
The EU’s criticism of French fiscal policy is not in itself a major concern. But France’s debt-to-GDP ratio may well rise over time rather than declining as the government intends. The key problem is a very large primary deficit which the government plans …
Key insights from our new CE Climate Reporting Tools …
Since early 2020 there has been a clear divergence in performance between data centers and the traditional commercial real estate sectors. Looking forward, we expect the hyperscale sub-sector will continue to outperform off the back of growing cloud …
20th November 2023
We are doubtful that the recent strength of consumption is because real incomes are being understated, as some have suggested. It is more likely that so-called “excess savings” were previously underestimated, but even the latest estimates imply those …
