Rate hikes showing on all policy radars

The re-tightening of restrictions has overshadowed the start of the year in Switzerland and the Nordics, and our GDP growth forecasts for 2022 are about 0.5%-pts lower than the consensus. Nonetheless, the soft patches for activity should be short lived, and in any case GDP was comfortably above its pre-virus peaks in late 2021 – particularly in Sweden. All told, we expect output to expand broadly in line with its pre-virus trends across the board in the coming years. Euro-zone Drop-In: Why the ECB will be laying the groundwork for rate hikes in 2023. Join Andrew Kenningham and the Europe team for a discussion about their Q1 euro-zone Economic Outlook report on Tuesday, 1 Feb at 09:00 EST/14:00 GMT. Registration here.