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Overview – The economy held up better at the start of the year than we had anticipated, but we still expect it to enter a recession in the second half of the year. Even though underlying inflation probably hasn’t peaked yet, we suspect the Bank of Japan …
12th June 2023
The fall in employment in May suggests the Bank might not need to follow its 25bp hike this week with another in July. But with employment among prime-age people continuing to rise strongly and house prices surging last month, we still suspect the Bank is …
9th June 2023
The seven-month run of house price declines recently ground to a halt, with the Case-Shiller index showing an increase in prices in both February and March. This was partly driven by the temporary boost to demand at the start of the year from declining …
The euro-zone has fallen into recession, albeit only by the finest of margins – the economy contracted by 0.1% q/q in both Q4 last year and Q1 this year. The consensus view is that the worst is now behind us and that growth will accelerate, presumably in …
Labour market starting to loosen The fall in employment and the increase in the unemployment rate to 5.2% in May will probably not prevent the Bank of Canada from raising interest rates again at its July meeting, but the moves reinforce our view that the …
We expect the Fed to leave interest rates unchanged at next week’s FOMC meeting but, in what could be characterised as a “hawkish skip”, to signal via forward guidance (updated SEP forecasts and language in the statement) that officials are minded to hike …
Labour market starting to loosen The increase in the unemployment rate to 5.2% in May will probably not prevent the Bank of Canada from raising interest rates again at its July meeting, as the weakness was partly a statistical effect related to reduced …
Central Bank Drop-In (15th June): We’ll be discussing the Fed and ECB June decisions and previewing the Bank of England’s upcoming meeting in a 20-minute online briefing at 10:00 EDT/15:00 BST on Thursday . Register Now. We learnt this week that the …
Central Bank Drop-In (15 th June): We’ll be discussing the Fed and ECB June decisions and previewing the Bank of England’s upcoming meeting in a 20-minute online briefing at 10:00 EDT/15:00 BST on Thursday . Register Now. The OECD joined the ranks of the …
Q1 GDP saw large upward revision The government in its May monthly economic report upgraded its view of the economy, changing its assessment to say that “the economy is recovering moderately”, dropping the previous qualifier that “there was some …
Rate hikes will drive double-dip housing downturn The big news this week was RBA Governor Lowe indicating that the Board’s patience to tolerate high inflation was waning. The Bank’s hawkish turn, coming at a time when unit labour costs are growing at …
Our updated industrial metros analysis, which now incorporates the current vacancy rate, continues to point to Memphis as having the strongest prospects for rent growth over a three-year horizon. Miami, Orlando, San Diego, LA and Nashville also rank …
8th June 2023
Refinancing risks increase The recent upward revision to our mortgage rate forecast and the fact that the majority of those that need to refinance this year are on two-year fixes means that we are now more worried about the risk posed by refinancing. …
Recent economic difficulties have forced online retail to tighten their returns policies. At face value, this seems good news for retail property as it may shift demand back to stores for certain categories. However the change is unlikely to be a big …
Normalising supply could make future drop in demand more damaging The significant improvement in the RICS survey in May echoed the pause in house price falls in the past few months. But the survey also showed an increase in supply, which could …
Net trade to boost GDP in Q2 The narrowing of the trade surplus in April was driven in large part by a deterioration in the terms of trade. We think net exports will actually provide a modest boost to GDP growth this quarter. The decline in the trade …
Japan’s carmakers face an existential threat from the emergence of cheap EV exports from China. Even in a benign scenario where carmakers eventually jump on the EV bandwagon, we suspect that they would have to rely on battery technology from China and …
Net trade to boost GDP in Q2 The rise in the import bill in April likely overstates the strength of domestic demand in Australia. The decline in the trade surplus to $11.2bn in April, from a downwards-revised $14.8bn in March, was sharper than most had …
June pause to be followed by July hike, taking rates to a peak of 5.25%-5.50% Labour market resilience means we now don’t expect rates to be cut until Q1 next year Fed funds target range to fall to 2.75%-3.00% by end-2024 There appears to be enough …
7th June 2023
The Bank of Canada’s 25bp interest rate hike today is unlikely to be the last, with the rapid turnaround in the housing market and concerning underlying inflation dynamics raising the case for at least one more hike in July, to take the policy rate to …
According to our proprietary interest rate-sensitive indicators, activity in advanced economies has so far proven remarkably resilient to higher interest rates. A lot of this has been due to a rebound in auto sales related to pandemic distortions, whereas …
Bank resumes rate hikes and probably another to come in July The Bank of Canada’s 25bp interest rate hike today is unlikely to be the last, with the rapid turnaround in the housing market and concerning underlying inflation dynamics raising the case for …
Exports still benefitting from easing support shortages Easing supply shortages supported strong export growth in April but, with the surveys of export orders still very weak, that strength is likely to fade soon. Canada’s goods trade surplus widened from …
What will major advanced economy central banks decide at their June meetings, and how will those decisions be messaged? In this special briefing, Paul Ashworth , Andrew Kenningham and Paul Dales , our Chief Economists for the US, Europe and UK, …
Exports still benefitting from easing supply shortages Easing supply shortages continued to support export growth in April but, with export orders still very weak, that resilience is likely to fade soon. Canada’s goods trade surplus widened from a …
Slump in exports to weigh on Q2 GDP growth The widening in the trade deficit to a six-month high of $74.6bn in April, from $60.6bn, means that net external trade is on track to be a big drag on second-quarter GDP growth, with the latter still tracking …
Demand falls to historic low Mortgage applications for home purchase fell to their lowest level in almost 30 years in May, as a renewed rise in mortgage rates weighed on demand. This points to further near-term weakness for home sales, which we think will …
Weak demand to weigh on industry The disappointingly small rebound in German industrial production in April suggests that the boost from lower energy prices and improved global supply conditions at the beginning of the year has run its course. And …
Pause in May will give way to renewed falls ahead House prices were unchanged in May according to Halifax. Given that lack of momentum, the increase in mortgage rates following the bad inflation data published on the 24th of the month is set to tip house …
In response to the hawkish shift by RBA Governor Lowe and the further acceleration in unit labour cost growth, we now expect the Bank to lift the cash rate to 4.85% by September. That aggressive monetary tightening will push the Australian economy into a …
RBA could be forced to keep hiking into economic downturn Real GDP growth slowed sharply last quarter as household spending ground to a standstill. However, with productivity falling for a fourth consecutive quarter, unit labour costs grew apace. …
Flagging productivity raises risk of higher terminal interest rate Although the economy is clearly slowing, dismal productivity gains raise the risk that the RBA will have to raise interest rates above the 4.35% peak we have pencilled in. The 0.2% q/q …
The resolution of the debt ceiling debate has cleared a cloud that was hanging over the US equity market, but we think a darker one – a growth slowdown – still lingers. That’s why we doubt the rest of the year will be particularly positive for the S&P …
6th June 2023
Many of the factors that explain the UK’s chronically weak GDP growth since the pandemic, such as the shrinking of the UK’s workforce and low export growth, won’t disappear any time soon. This explains why we expect the UK economy’s underperformance to …
The Reserve Bank of Australia lifted the cash rate by 25bp today and the hawkish tone of the statement suggests that the risks to our terminal rate forecast of 4.35% are tilted to the upside. Indeed, we still think that the Bank will cut interest rates …
RBA will deliver another 25bp hike next month The Reserve Bank of Australia lifted the cash rate by 25bp today and the hawkish tone of the statement suggests that the risks to our terminal rate forecast of 4.35% are tilted to the upside. Today’s decision …
Renewed strength in regular pay growth won’t last Wage growth fell in April due to a fall in overtime pay and mostly stagnant bonus payments, while regular pay growth rebounded. But labour market conditions should loosen in the second half on account of a …
Wage growth still set to fall sharply in H2 Labour cash earnings rose by 1.0% y/y in April, marking a slowdown from 1.3% in March. That was due to a 0.3% fall in overtime pay and bonus payments staying virtually flat with just a 0.2% rise. By contrast, …
ISM surveys suggest economy has stalled In contrast to the strength of payroll employment growth last month, the fall in the ISM services index to a five-month low of 50.3 in May, from 51.9, suggests the economy is barrelling towards recession. On past …
5th June 2023
The recent decline in the number of job vacancies suggests that the upward pressure on wage growth from labour shortages is probably past its peak. But it’s still not clear that wage growth will slow fast enough to ease the Bank of England’s concerns over …
Job vacancies haven’t surged in Japan because the participation rate has risen since the start of the pandemic and there hasn’t been a “Great Resignation” amongst Japanese workers. With the labour market set to loosen this year, wage growth will remain …
We think May’s ISM Services Index remained broadly consistent with stagnant US GDP (Mon.) We expect policy rate hikes of 25bp from Australia’s central bank, to 4.10%... (Tue.) … and from the Bank of Canada, to 4.75%(Thu.) Key Market Themes Despite the …
2nd June 2023
The upside surprise to first-quarter GDP growth means there is a rising probability that the Bank of Canada will raise interest rates again. While the commonly held view seems to be that the Bank will wait until July, the passing of the US debt ceiling …
Debt ceiling ends not with a bang but a whimper The debt ceiling standoff ended not with a bang but a whimper – as the bill easily passed the House and Senate with comfortable majorities. In the end, the debt ceiling negotiations played out largely as …
In a recent Global Markets Update , we analysed the remarkably narrow rally in the S&P 500 so far in 2023. We concluded that recent history supported our forecast that the rally will run out of steam before long, albeit with the largest firms potentially …
Core inflation on its way down? Data published this week showed that euro-zone core inflation fell for the second consecutive month in May. (You can read our response to the data here or watch our Drop-in on the outlook for inflation, ECB policy and …
Despite employment strength, unemployment up and wage growth down The bigger-than-expected 339,000 increase in non-farm payroll employment in May will dominate the headlines, but the employment report was not all positive – with a big drop in the …