Europe Economics Update Italy’s fiscal measures will need to be seen to be believed On the face of it, the response of the Italian Government to the recent market mayhem appears pretty impressive. But we are sceptical as to whether the Government can deliver on its promises. 10th August 2011 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Update Asian governments will continue buying US debt Even before S&Ps downgrade of US debt on Friday, many governments in Asia had been stepping up efforts to diversify their foreign exchange reserves away from US dollars. However, as long as Asian... 9th August 2011 · 1 min read
Latin America Economics Update Are emerging markets immune? Despite benefiting from generally better fundamentals, no emerging market (EM) is immune from the deepening problems in the US and Europe. Growth everywhere is likely to slow over the next year and... 9th August 2011 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update ECB purchases may have little lasting impact The ECB’s purchases of Italian and Spanish Government bonds have drawn a very positive initial response in the markets. But there are some good reasons to doubt that it will be sustained. 9th August 2011 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update ECB softens its stance The ECB was bolder than expected today, upping its support for the banking sector and embarking on a new bout of bond purchases to help the peripheral economies. The Bank claimed that these measures... 5th August 2011 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Focus Should we be worried about sovereign debt in Asia? Emerging Asia is not in any imminent danger of a sovereign-debt crisis: debt levels in most countries are low, while strong growth makes it easier to finance debt burdens. However, another sharp... 4th August 2011 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Update The Philippines targeting investment grade The Philippines has seen its fiscal deficit fall sharply during the first six months of the year. Although revenue growth has been growing strongly, the fact that government spending has fallen... 4th August 2011 · 1 min read
UK Economic Outlook Squeeze on real pay to worsen With the economic recovery still struggling to regain momentum, we have recently lowered our forecasts for consumer spending and GDP growth this year. We now expect a 1.5% drop in real spending. We... 3rd August 2011 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update Can the new rescue package solve Greece’s problems? The new details on the second rescue package for Greece that have emerged over the past week or so have not altered our view that Greece’s outstanding debt burden remains unsustainably high. A second... 2nd August 2011 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update Euro-zone Fiscal Monitor (Jul.) It is becoming increasingly clear that some of the peripheral economies will struggle to meet their budget deficit targets this year. And the new Greek package, like its predecessors, is unlikely to... 2nd August 2011 · 1 min read
US Economics Weekly Downgrade, default or both? Even if the politicians finally get their act together and agree a deficit reduction package, the resulting spending cuts may not be large enough to appease the credit rating agencies. As such, we... 2nd August 2011 · 1 min read
US Economics Update Default seemingly averted, but downgrade almost certain The latest noises from Washington suggest that politicians are close to reaching a compromise on a deal that will raise the debt ceiling ahead of Tuesday night, thereby preventing a debt default and a... 1st August 2011 · 1 min read
Global Markets Update Essential points on the US debt crisis The US debt crisis will clearly dominate the agenda in the coming week, so it is worth summarising and expanding on the points we have made so far. In short, we continue to think that the Federal... 30th July 2011 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Update What is the impact of Saudi Arabia’s aid to Jordan? Saudi Arabia’s additional $1 billion in aid to Jordan will help to avert a short-term fiscal crisis in the resource-poor country. But we are more concerned that this aid will lead to government... 27th July 2011 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Weekly Back from the brink, for now The positive market reaction to the Greek rescue package is not without some justification. After all, following the dithering and disagreement of recent months, it would not have been a shock if... 26th July 2011 · 1 min read
US Economics Update What if the US loses its AAA rating? A downgrade of US government debt would not necessarily be disastrous for Treasuries or the dollar, at least once the dust settled. However, it would be the starkest warning yet that the fall-out from... 23rd July 2011 · 1 min read
