UK Economics Weekly Take fiscal pledges with a pinch of salt With the party conference season in full swing, attention has turned from the Scottish referendum to the main parties’ plans for fiscal policy in the next parliament. But while their new pledges may... 26th September 2014 · 1 min read
Latin America Chart Pack Growth concerns come to the fore The past month has seen renewed concerns about the growth outlook for much of Latin America. GDP in the region grew by just 1.1% y/y in Q2 and the available data so far point to a similar pace of... 26th September 2014 · 1 min read
Emerging Markets Financial Risk Monitor Risks linger in parts of the EM world As the Fed moves towards a first interest rate hike, the Capital Economics Risk Indicator (CERI) shows that financial risks are at a decade low. As such, a systemic emerging market (EM) crisis seems... 26th September 2014 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Weekly Tankan could deliver a positive surprise The analyst consensus is close to unanimous that the forthcoming Tankan will show a second successive decline. That’s not implausible given the continued weakness of the activity data. Nonetheless... 26th September 2014 · 1 min read
Latin America Economics Update Brazil debt risks: private sector still poses the greatest threat Some commentators have argued that the deterioration in Brazil’s public finances in recent years has raised the risk of a fiscal crisis during the next presidential term, which runs from 2015 to 2019... 26th September 2014 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Update Financial sector woes will continue to weigh on Vietnam Today’s GDP data show that Vietnam’s economy is showing gradual signs of a recovery from the financial crisis that erupted more than three years ago. Looking ahead, the government is making some... 26th September 2014 · 1 min read
ECB Watch Preparing the ground for QE The ECB now seems to be taking deflation risks more seriously, implementing surprise interest rate cuts in September and leaving the door wide open to quantitative easing. With the economy apparently... 25th September 2014 · 1 min read
UK Markets Outlook Diverging rate paths to favour gilts Since the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is probably only a few months away from starting to raise interest rates, gilt yields are likely to depart from their three decade long downward trend soon... 25th September 2014 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update Euro-zone Monetary Indicators Monitor (Aug.) Although August’s euro-zone monetary data showed further signs of improvement, lending is still contracting and, given the low uptake at the ECB’s first TLTRO last week, there is little sign that this... 25th September 2014 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Economics Update Hungary to keep rates at record low well into next year The National Bank of Hungary’s post-meeting press release reinforced the message that the MPC sees little pressure to raise interest rates. Indeed, with inflation likely to remain low, and economic... 23rd September 2014 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Economics Update Assessing the impact of the Ukraine crisis on the Baltics So far at least, the crisis in Ukraine doesn’t seem to have had much of an impact on overall exports from or capital flows to the Baltic States, despite their relatively large ties to Russia. However... 22nd September 2014 · 1 min read
China Economics Update The view from the ground – Q3 2014 Perhaps the most notable development in today’s quarterly surveys from the People’s Bank is the sharp drop in reported loan demand but there are some more positive developments too. Firms report... 19th September 2014 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Weekly Credit growth in Emerging Asia still unsustainable We have been arguing for some time that Emerging Asia’s credit binge is unsustainable, and that credit growth will need to slow for a crisis to be avoided. While there are encouraging signs that... 19th September 2014 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Economics Update Problems at Bank Asya turn attention to Turkey’s bank risks The near-collapse of the Turkish Islamic bank, Bank Asya, seems to be an isolated incident, the result of political feuding more than bad credit decisions. But it has put the spotlight back onto... 19th September 2014 · 1 min read
China Chart Pack More targeted support for small firms Although liquidity operations by the PBOC have received the most attention this week, further measures to support small firms that were announced by the State Council on Wednesday are arguably more... 18th September 2014 · 1 min read
China Economics Update Latest move by PBOC is not a policy shift The general impression seems to be that the latest liquidity injections by the People’s Bank are a form of stealth stimulus. But these are in fact run-of-the-mill operations designed to smooth... 17th September 2014 · 1 min read
