Europe Economics Weekly EU struggles to agree on next steps for energy EU leaders have struggled to agree on whether to impose more curbs on Russian energy and on how to best support households and firms in the face of spiralling energy prices. But most national... 25th March 2022 · 8 mins read
Nordic & Swiss Economics Weekly Anna Breman baffles a bunch of students The finer points of Anna Breman’s views on the outlook for Riksbank policy were probably lost on her audience of a group of secondary students in a speech this week, but the message for avid Riksbank... 25th March 2022 · 5 mins read
Latin America Data Response Brazil IPCA-15 (Mar. 2022) The stronger-than-expected Brazilian inflation reading for the first half of March, of 10.8% y/y, will be followed by a jump to 11.5-12.0% in the near term as recent fuel price hikes filter through... 25th March 2022 · 2 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Support measures won’t prevent inflation reaching 2% The government is preparing fresh support measures to lower prices of petroleum products, which will reduce the drag on household incomes and will prevent inflation from breaching 2% for now. We still... 25th March 2022 · 8 mins read
Latin America Data Response Mexico Bi-Weekly CPI (Mar.) While Mexico’s headline inflation stabilised at 7.3% y/y in the first half of March, the further rise in the core rate to 6.6% y/y suggests that the central bank is still struggling to keep a lid on... 24th March 2022 · 2 mins read
Asia Economics Update Philippines: central bank in no rush to tighten The central bank in the Philippines (BSP) left its main policy rate on hold at 2.00% today and will be in little hurry to tighten policy in the months ahead, with supporting the economic recovery set... 24th March 2022 · 2 mins read
Global Central Bank Watch Tightening risks recession but inaction would be worse The war in Ukraine has worsened the dilemma for the world’s major central banks: on the one hand it will push inflation even higher, but on the other it has raised the downside risks to real activity... 23rd March 2022 · 11 mins read
US Chart Pack Inflation to fall sharply in H2 While the war in Ukraine and sanctions on Russian oil mean energy prices will remain elevated and push headline inflation above 8% in March, it will still fall sharply later this year. Energy... 23rd March 2022 · 8 mins read
Canada Chart Pack Market-implied policy tightening could topple housing The surge in interest rate expectations is a key risk to housing. We recently set out how, due to the much larger share of variable rate mortgages than before the pandemic, the Bank of Canada would... 23rd March 2022 · 9 mins read
Emerging Markets Economics Chart Pack War in Ukraine to drag on EM GDP growth The war in Ukraine will have several economic repercussions for the emerging world. We have lowered our aggregate EM GDP growth forecast for 2022 by 1%-pt, to 3.2%. Russia aside, the biggest downward... 23rd March 2022 · 9 mins read
Africa Data Response South Africa Consumer Prices (Feb.) South Africa’s headline inflation rate was unchanged at 5.7% y/y in February but, with the war in Ukraine increasing upside inflation risks and signs that the economic recovery has been robust... 23rd March 2022 · 3 mins read
UK Economics Consumer Prices (Feb.) The further rise in CPI inflation from 5.5% in January to a new 30-year high of 6.2% in February adds to the pressure on the Chancellor to offset more of the cost of living crisis in today’s fiscal... 23rd March 2022 · 3 mins read
Emerging Europe Economics Update MNB firmly in inflation-fighting mode Hungary’s central bank (MNB) stepped up the pace of tightening today with a 100bp increase in its base rate, to 4.40%, and the hawkish communications underline the view that the central bank will... 22nd March 2022 · 3 mins read
Global Economics Update Back to the 1970s? While the parallels with the 1970s have been building, we remain unlikely to see the scale of stagflation witnessed back then. The main difference now is the apparent determination of central banks to... 22nd March 2022 · 5 mins read
Emerging Markets Economics Focus Can EMs weather Fed tightening? For the most part, EMs are well placed to withstand rising US interest rates, but there are pockets of vulnerability where external financing needs are significant. Among the large EMs, Turkey... 22nd March 2022 · 13 mins read
Japan Chart Pack Tightening would require wage growth of at least 2% Governor Kuroda admitted last week that inflation could hit the Bank of Japan’s 2% target in April but stressed that “that in no way signifies there will be a revision of our current monetary policy”... 21st March 2022 · 10 mins read
