Surge in motor vehicle sales fails to offset weakness elsewhere The easing of supply shortages provided a big boost to motor vehicle shipments in November, but this failed to offset falls elsewhere. While there is scope for transportation equipment …
16th January 2023
2023 has begun with the Ukraine war still raging, tensions mounting over global trade practices, but also signs that China is dialling down its aggressive diplomatic posturing. By the end of this year, candidates will be dialling up the rhetoric as they …
The recent resilience of the economy to the dual drags of high inflation and higher interest rates doesn’t mean the pain has been avoided. Instead, our analysis suggests that higher interest rates will become a bigger drag on activity in the most …
China’s rapid reopening and the likelihood of policy stimulus there has improved the macro-economic backdrop for commodities in 2023. But with developed economies in recession, and a somewhat stronger dollar and weaker US equities in Q1, we think a …
Housing downturns are well underway in many countries and house prices and activity generally have further to fall. Construction activity is already suffering as a result. While it is hard to detect any major adverse effect on household spending, this …
There’s some dispute as to whether UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan ever actually said “events, dear boy, events” when asked what can blow governments off course. Whatever its provenance, the quote does capture how economic forecasts can be blown off …
Wholesale inflation drops for the sixth month in a row The drop in Indian wholesale price inflation for the sixth month in a row in December further reinforces our view that the MPC will draw the tightening cycle to a close after one more rate hike in its …
China’s economy was tied down by the government’s tough zero-COVID regime. And then it wasn’t. The virus appears to have ripped through much of China’s urban population in the wake of the dramatic policy U-turn by Beijing, setting the stage for a dramatic …
15th January 2023
The dismantling of China’s zero-COVID policy has come quicker than we and many had expected. Whereas we previously thought the first quarter would bring the worst of the economic disruption from surging COVID cases, it now appears the worst is behind us …
13th January 2023
The US dollar has remained under pressure as hopes of a “soft landing” continue to build and risk sentiment improves. While yesterday’s key US CPI data came out roughly in line with consensus expectations, and the market reaction was more limited than …
This Update makes four key points about corporate earnings in the US as the Q4 results season gets into swing. They all feed into our view that the S&P 500 will remain under pressure until the spring and underperform Treasuries as a recession there begins …
BoJ may abandon Yield Curve Control as soon as next week (Wed) We think the PBOC will leave rates on hold next week, buts cuts are coming We anticipate interest rate hikes in Norway, Indonesia and Malaysia Key Market Themes An end to Japan’s Yield Curve …
The December CPI data and the Bank of Canada’s quarterly business and consumer surveys, released next week, could have a big bearing on the policy outlook. For the Bank to pause after one final 25 bp hike this month, as we assume, it will need to see …
Tuesday’s retail sales data are likely to show that spending plunged as COVID crashed through China last month. But December was an age ago. It can’t tell us much about what will happen now. We’d caution against some of the bullish takes doing the rounds. …
Further fall in inflation despite utility price hike The softer-than-expected inflation reading in Russia in December, of 11.9% y/y, is likely to be followed by further sharp falls in the coming months towards 4% as last year’s surge in prices passes …
We have revised up our forecasts for equities in China, given a brighter outlook for the economy there. We have also increased our China 10-year sovereign bond yield forecast for end-2023, as we think that a faster economic recovery will lead to tighter …
Brazil riots: reflecting on the fallout The riots in Brasília last Sunday thankfully ended quickly. And the country’s financial markets, after losing ground on Monday, have rebounded over the course of this week. Investors have been buoyed by the fact …
At a key policy conference, South Africa’s ruling party officials offered little by way of new ideas to address the country’s mounting economic challenges. And some fresh proposals risk making matters worse. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) …
Implications of a stronger recovery in China COVID-19 has spread through China much faster than we had expected, with one province reporting that 89% of the population has been infected with the virus. This is paving the way to a much earlier economic …
Sentiment rebounding from historically weak level The further rise in the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index to 64.6 in January, from 59.7, illustrates that consumers have taken some encouragement from the fall in energy prices. Nevertheless, …
Early signs that the inflation tide is turning This week brought the clearest evidence yet that the disinflation process in Central Europe is underway as most economies experienced a marked and broad-based easing of price pressures in December. This is …
While the medium-term outlook for the renminbi and other Asian currencies has improved, and we have revised some of our forecasts accordingly, we continue to anticipate that a deterioration in risk sentiment as other major economies slide into recession …
Core CPI continues to moderate The 0.1% m/m decline in headline CPI in December was principally due to a 9.4% m/m drop in gasoline prices, but core consumer prices also increased by a more modest 0.3% m/m, extending the run of weaker monthly gains to …
While euro-zone equities face some meaningful short-term headwinds which threaten their recent run of outperformance, we still expect them to fare better than US equities over the next couple of years. Euro-zone equities broke a long run of …
It’s remarkable that the economy appears to have avoided a recession (defined as two consecutive quarters of falling real GDP) in 2022. Most economists thought that the recession began in Q2 2022 as back in August the ONS estimated that real GDP fell by …
Commodity imports generally rose in December, but fell in 2022 as a whole. In a possible sign of optimism around reopening, soybean imports skyrocketed. China’s unexpectedly swift switch to living with COVID should see commodity imports, particularly …
After months of gloom, there seems to be some newfound optimism about the euro-zone’s economic prospects. Commentary about the euro-zone economy has turned more positive. And this year’s rally in euro-zone financial markets probably at least partly …
The past month has brought a string of positive developments on the activity and inflation side. The biggest news has been China’s decision to throw in the towel on its zero-COVID policy, which brightened the prospects for the world’s largest economy …
Higher Swedish GDP forecast We learnt this week that Sweden’s monthly GDP Indicator declined by 0.5% m/m in November as a result of a fall in manufacturing output and “several service producing industries”, suggesting that policy tightening was …
The euro-zone economy held up a bit better than we expected at the end of last year. On balance, the data point to GDP flat-lining or contracting only slightly in Q4. Germany’s statistics office this morning published its first estimate of GDP in 2022, …
The recent commencement of stricter office EPC legislation in the Netherlands has raised concerns that Dutch office valuations may be on the edge of a regulatory precipice, given the large proportion of non-compliant stock. However, we think the …
Q4 contraction probably avoided Annual GDP data for Germany suggest that the economy avoided a contraction in Q4 and that the euro-zone as a whole will probably prove more resilient to the energy crisis than we initially feared. But activity clearly …
Rupee settlement mechanism to see limited use It has been a relatively quiet start to the year on the economic front in India but a speech over the weekend from RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das has garnered attention. Among the highlights, Governor Das struck …
Recession averted in 2022, but unavoidable in 2023 The small 0.1% m/m gain in real GDP in November (consensus -0.2% m/m, CE -0.3% m/m) suggests the economy did not contract in Q4 and is not in recession. Even so, it is too soon to conclude the economy …
Another rise in core inflation means 50bp hike in February nailed on Yet another larger-than-expected increase in the Riksbank’s target measure of inflation and in the core rate suggest that policymakers are highly likely to raise rates by 50bp in …
The Bank of Korea today raised interest rates by a further 25bps (to 3.50%) and relatively dovish comments by Governor Rhee support our view that the tightening cycle is now over. With growth set to struggle and inflation likely to fall back further, we …
GDP resilient, but still set for contraction in Q1 The small 0.1% m/m gain in real GDP in November (consensus -0.2% m/m, CE -0.3% m/m) suggests the economy was not as weak in Q4 as we had previously thought. But even if the economy does a bit better than …
Reopening to boost imports but exports will still struggle China’s exports contracted year-on-year in December by the most since the Wuhan lockdown in early 2020. Imports held up slightly better but are still depressed. Inbound shipments should start to …
Services inflation on the rise The timely Tokyo CPI showed that inflation jumped from 3.7% to 4.0% in December, twice the BoJ’s 2% target. Our measure of “core” goods inflation accelerated further, but below the surface there are clear signs of a …
Inflation strong, consumption resilient On balance, the economic data released this week are consistent with our view that the RBA has more work to do. For a start, inflation rose back up from 6.9% to 7.3% in November, with trimmed mean inflation reaching …
Final rate hike of the cycle The Bank of Korea today raised interest rates by a further 25bps (to 3.50%), but with price pressures easing and economic growth slowing sharply, we think this will be the last hike of the cycle. Today’s decision came as …
There are growing signs that housing market activity may be close to a trough. The decline in mortgage rates over the past couple of months has led to a small improvement in affordability and a rise in homebuyer sentiment, albeit from a record low. …
12th January 2023
Further big falls in inflation seem now to be discounted in major developed markets, especially the US. That helps to underpin our view that high-grade government bond markets will only rally a little further over the remainder of this year even if, as we …
Disruption from China’s reopening is fading faster than we had expected and we have revised up our forecast for growth there from 2.0% to 5.5%. This means that global GDP growth will be stronger than we had expected this year and energy inflation will …
The Bank of Korea is likely to implement one final 25bp hike (01.00 GMT) Chinese trade data will probably show falls in both imports and exports in December We think UK GDP fell by 0.3% m/m in November (07.00 GMT) Key Market Themes The latest evidence …
Europe’s energy crisis, sky-high rates of inflation and Ukraine’s reconstruction were among the biggest topics of conversation at Euromoney’s Central and Eastern European (CEE) forum in Vienna this week. There seems to be a widespread view now that …
The Norges Bank is one step from ending its tightening cycle. We expect it to raise its policy rate by 25bp next week, to a peak of 3%. After that it is likely to pause while it waits to assess the full effects of the cumulative 300bp of tightening that …
Another more muted gain in core CPI Core CPI inflation was still an elevated 5.7% in December but, with another more muted 0.3% m/m gain, the three-month annualised rate fell to a 20-month low of 3.1%. Admittedly, the latter is still slightly above the …
Slump in gasoline prices drives decline in headline CPI Consumer prices declined by 0.1% m/m in December, helped by a 9.4% m/m drop back in gasoline prices and a more modest 0.3% m/m increase in food prices. The pace of monthly gains in food away from …
