The recent surge in rental growth to a record high has been widely reported, but the usual explanations are unsatisfactory. Population indicators don’t suggest a sudden rise in demand, and there is little evidence of landlords selling up. Instead, we …
16th November 2022
Even as Central London office vacancy rates rose to a 12-year peak in Q3, annual rental growth ticked-up to a three-year high. That marks a reversal from the situation prior to COVID-19, when a tight market failed to spark a strong rise in rents. But we …
15th November 2022
This week’s G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, has so far exceeded low expectations. There is broad condemnation of the war in Ukraine and bilateral talks between China and the US seem to have been amicable. But with the meeting dominated by geopolitical …
Although credit growth in advanced economies remained strong in September, it has largely been used to help economies cope with the effects from rising costs and inflation. But lending criteria is now tightening and demand for loans – particularly …
We’re sticking with our view that the equity market rally will go into reverse as the world economy slips into a recession. Equities surged last week, boosted by a soft US CPI print . The ~5.5% gain in the S&P 500 on Thursday, for example, was its largest …
14th November 2022
While Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro initially made a promising start to his tenure, his recent interventionist comments have led to a sharp sell-off in local financial markets. Regaining investors’ trust while navigating the economy through a period …
Romania’s current account deficit, which is among the largest in the EM world, has continued to widen this year and now exceeds 9% of GDP. It is reassuring that much of the deficit is currently being financed by relatively stable forms of capital inflows. …
We think the combination of subdued domestic activity and an economic downturn in most major economies will hurt demand for Chinese economic output in the coming months, prompting lower production and therefore import volumes of agricultural commodities. …
Despite the recent sharp drop in the greenback, we doubt this is the end of the dollar bull market. Yesterday’s softer-than-expected US CPI print prompted the largest single-day drop in the DXY index since December 2015. Indeed, it was one of only a …
11th November 2022
The global recession will drag on zinc consumption even further in the coming months, probably leading to renewed price declines. But, towards the end of 2023, supply concerns should push the price higher. Even though the price of zinc has risen recently, …
The news that the authorities in China plan to “optimise” their response to the pandemic while not abandoning their zero-COVID policy has coincided with a surge in its stock market. There is still a risk that this somewhat lighter-touch approach will lead …
We don’t expect the 10-year JGB yield to rise above the top of the Bank of Japan’s tolerance band, and think it may even fall back to the middle of that band next year as yields continue to decline elsewhere. Yields fell sharply around the world, and the …
As the global economy enters recession, the outlook for natural rubber (NR) demand appears bleak. What’s more, stocks are already high. We expect prices to fall further in the near term, before some recovery in late 2023 on hopes of monetary easing and a …
The dramatic improvement in EM public finances since the height of the pandemic is starting to run out of steam. And we think that fiscal dynamics are likely to get worse next year in parts of Central Europe and in most commodity-producing countries. …
Falls in Paris prime retail rents are set to continue into 2023 as weaker domestic and foreign spending weigh on tenant demand. And while the prospects for both are brighter for 2024, we think the high level of vacancy will ensure only a modest rebound in …
China’s equities have received a boost recently from speculation that the country will ease its strict zero-COVID policy, but we don’t think this marks the start of a more sustained rally; we forecast benchmark Chinese equity indices to fall over the next …
10th November 2022
While the renminbi, and many other currencies sensitive to the outlook for China’s economy, have rallied sharply against the dollar on hopes that China will shift away from its “zero-COVID” policy (and today’s softer-than-expected US CPI print), we doubt …
We doubt the recent underperformance of UK high-yield corporate bonds relative to those in the euro-zone will continue given the relative outlooks for monetary policy and economic growth. Corporate bond yields in developed markets (DMs), as measured by …
Nigeria’s demonetisation efforts are likely to add to already-high economic costs of the country’s unorthodox policies. The resulting currency falls will fuel inflation further and disruptions to activity are more or less inevitable, supporting our …
A shift away from zero-COVID would be positive for China’s economy over the medium term. But the immediate disruption of reopening would probably exceed the cost of keeping the policy in place, especially if vaccine coverage among the elderly hadn’t …
Widespread downgrades, but still well short of the negative returns we expect Consensus forecasts for 2023 have been downgraded pretty sharply since the Spring, but we don’t think they have gone far enough. While the consensus is predicting total returns …
We still expect consumer spending to rise rapidly over the coming year. But with many overseas trading partners entering recession, exports will decline. That will prompt firms to pull in their horns and weigh on business investment. The upshot is that we …
While mobile and other digital payment methods are still used less in India than in many EMs, the rapid expansion initially triggered by the pandemic has continued over the past year. A well-developed payments infrastructure should support continued …
9th November 2022
The recent IMF deals reached by governments in Egypt and Tunisia are positive developments and will help ease balance of payments strains in both countries. Egypt has already made progress with meeting the IMF’s demands and restoring macro stability, …
The ECB might start quantitative tightening next year but that’s not guaranteed, and even if it does so we doubt that it will make much of a dent in its government bond holdings. As a result, interest rates will remain the most important tool for …
Spanish office rental values are expected to be harder hit than the euro-zone average as the looming recession weighs on occupier demand and higher interest rates push up yields. However, at a market level, Barcelona is most exposed given its looser …
US petroleum product prices have risen again, mainly due to refinery-side supply constraints. We think this will translate into fewer product exports, but potentially even more crude oil exports. As we expected, US wholesale fuel prices have remained …
8th November 2022
The Fed’s mounting losses are an expected result of surging interest rates and will not prevent officials from continuing to tighten policy, nor will they require the Treasury to step in and “recapitalize” the central bank. But it does mean that …
The Polish central bank’s dovish monetary policy stance is becoming increasingly at odds with the severity of inflation pressures and this reinforces our long-held view that inflation won’t return to the central bank’s target until 2025 at the earliest. …
In line with changes in our global economic view, we have made significant downgrades to our commercial real estate forecasts for the next couple of years. As a result, we now expect a much bigger drop in property values next year that will cause annual …
Our seasonally-adjusted measure of aggregate EM goods exports recorded a decline in dollar terms in September and leading indicators point to further falls over the rest of the year. And with commodity prices on a downward trend and the global economy …
Brazil’s financial markets have been some of the world’s best performers lately, supported in part by the prospect of centrist policymaking by incoming president Lula. With the presidential election now complete, and Lula set to be inaugurated soon, a …
A strong rebound in working hours in the accommodation and food services sector is one reason why regular pay is growing at the fastest pace in a generation. However, there’s been a broad-based upward shift in the distribution of pay hikes so the …
The proposed price caps on thermal coal and natural gas would knock off around one to 1.25%-pts from overall inflation though the full impact would only materialise in the second half of next year. Wholesale gas and thermal coal prices have surged in …
Higher interest rates have dramatically curbed the demand for home mortgages and auto loans, but there is only limited evidence of banks tightening lending standards, which suggests that they expect loan losses to remain relatively muted . The Fed’s …
7th November 2022
The impending global recession will see sluggish growth or outright contractions in GDP in most major economies, with Europe faring the worst. Accounting for changes in trend growth over time, we think that the depth of the global downturns in the 1990s …
China’s latest trade figures point to weak commodity demand both domestically and globally. Given that we don’t expect the slowdown in global economic growth to trough until early next year, we think commodity demand will remain subdued for a while …
Mexico’s current account deficit is likely to widen over the coming quarters and, while it will remain modest compared with other parts of Latin America, we expect the peso to come under pressure. Mexico’s current account has swung from a surplus of more …
The most measurable climate pledge made to date has been on climate finance – specifically the commitment by advanced countries to provide $100 billion each year to the emerging world by 2020 to fund adaptation and mitigation. With COP27 underway, this …
While front-month European natural gas prices have fallen sharply as concerns have eased around shortages this winter, longer-dated futures haven’t fallen by as much. That reflects how difficult it will be to fill storage without Russian gas flows next …
4th November 2022
The $6bn in new federal spending measures for this year, as outlined in the Fall Economic Update , amount to just 0.2% of GDP and will have little impact on the economic outlook or monetary policy. By utilising only a small part of the windfall from …
3rd November 2022
Gold and silver prices fell following Chair Powell’s hawkish comments yesterday. But if we are right in thinking US rates won’t rise by as much as markets expect, gold and silver prices should increase next year. We forecast prices to rise from $1,630 and …
The differing tones of the Fed, ECB and BoE at their recent meetings have seen yields rise in the US more than elsewhere and reignited the rally in the US dollar. That pattern could last a few more months. But we expect falling inflation in the US to mean …
The recent easing of global supply chain problems could put some downward pressure on euro-zone goods inflation soon. But equipment shortages are still a major problem for manufacturers, while their price expectations are high. And with the labour …
Although the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) raised interest rates today by 75 basis points (bps), from 2.25% to a 14-year high of 3.00%, it sent the strongest signal yet that it thinks rates won’t need to rise much above 4.00%. But with price/wage …
The surge in energy prices this year has led to a sharp widening in Hungary’s current account deficit and increased its dependence on foreign capital inflows. While the central bank (MNB) seems to have put a floor under the currency recently, it remains …
Today’s decision by the Norges Bank to slow the pace of rate hikes is the beginning of the end for its tightening cycle. But we don’t expect a pivot towards interest rate cuts next year. The Bank signalled at its last meeting that after raising its policy …
Malaysia’s central bank (BNM) raised its main policy rate by 25bp (to 2.75%) today, but with inflation falling and growth set to slow, we think the tightening cycle is nearing an end. Today’s move came as little surprise and was accurately predicted by …
The Fed raised its policy rate by another 75bp today, to between 3.75% and 4.00%, but laid the groundwork in the accompanying statement for a downshift to a 50bp hike at the next meeting in mid-December. With Chair Jerome Powell noting repeatedly that the …
2nd November 2022
Downward revisions to expectations for earnings have taken a toll in the second half of this year so far on the S&P 500, which had been under pressure in the first half from a discount-rate-driven drop in its valuation. We suspect expectations for …
