Oil prices and volatility come full circle Oil price volatility is within touching distance of its five-year average following the ceasefire between Iran and Israel. (See Chart 1.) While the ceasefire could well prove fragile, reported violations early on …
27th June 2025
Manufacturing slump points to weak second quarter The worse-than-expected 0.1% m/m contraction in GDP in April and equivalent sized estimated fall in May suggests that growth was flat at best in the second quarter, with a clear risk of a contraction. This …
Euro powering ahead The catalyst for this week’s further appreciation of the euro was nothing to do with Europe: instead, it reflected President Trump’s renewed attacks on the Fed and suggestions that he will appoint the next Fed Chair earlier than …
CEE generally resilient, with some weak spots The European Commission's Economic Sentiment Indicators for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) suggest that regional economic activity has been resilient in Q2, although there remains some points of concern – …
Activity weak and some signs of tariff drag The ESI for June suggests that US tariffs may be starting to drag on euro-zone activity and that the economy remains weak. Meanwhile, Middle-east tensions do not appear to have raised perceived uncertainty. The …
Boost for Korean consumers The weakness of consumer spending in Korea has continued in recent months, with retail sales now just over 2% below their pre-pandemic levels. (See Chart 1.) However, there are good reasons to think the worst is now over. …
Although the US dollar has tumbled as President Trump has ramped up the pressure on the Fed to cut rates, we don’t think investors are that concerned about the central bank’s independence yet. But the longer the attacks go on, the greater the pressure on …
Détente is on shaky foundations The understanding reached between the US and China during talks in Geneva and London has now been formalised, with the White House revealing that a written agreement was signed off two days ago. US officials have confirmed …
Tokyo election defeat is a red herring The poor showing of the LDP in Sunday’s metropolitan election in Tokyo is probably a red herring. While the number of seats the LDP won in Tokyo fell to a record low, the share of people that intend to vote for the …
The flow of funds data suggest that Japan’s budget deficit has continued to narrow after reaching a 30-year low in 2023. And while the recent plunge in the ratio of government debt to GDP partly reflects valuation changes caused by soaring bond yields, we …
Bank will speed up the pace of easing It’s become increasingly clear that the downside risks the RBA has been worried about are starting to manifest. Our GDP Nowcast suggests that recovery is struggling to gain momentum, prompting us to revise down our …
Inflation overshoot points to year-end rate hike The slowdown in headline inflation in Tokyo in June partly reflects the resumption of energy subsidies. With underlying inflation still running well ahead of the Bank of Japan’s forecasts, we still expect …
This inaugural Asia-Pacific Commercial Real Estate Outlook presents our analysis and five-year forecasts for the region’s largest markets across the four major sectors. We’ll be discussing the main takeaways from this report and answering your questions …
Banxico cuts by 50bp, but tone slightly less dovish Mexico’s central bank (Banxico) lowered its policy rate by another 50bp, to 8.00%, at today’s meeting, but the accompanying communications were slightly less dovish and point to a slower pace of easing …
26th June 2025
This dashboard shows our latest Asia-Pacific commercial property forecasts. If you have subscriber access to the data underlying this dashboard, you can download it via the menu options in the top right of each chart or table. If you would like subscriber …
With the noise around US tariffs and war in the Middle East fading, at least for now, we think the stage is set for some further decent returns from “risky” assets – especially US equities – over the next couple of years. But we suspect commodities will …
Overview – We expect tariffs to have only a modest impact on both real economic growth and price inflation. Admittedly, we do see annualised GDP growth slowing to around 1.5% in the second half of this year, but it should gradually recover from the second …
Table of Key Forecasts Overview – EM exports have held up well this year despite higher US tariffs, but the growth outlook over the second half of the year looks more challenging. We expect a slowdown in most EMs and our forecasts generally sit below …
We forecast a smaller 130,000 gain in non-farm payrolls in June. We expect the unemployment rate to remain unchanged at 4.2%, while average hourly earnings growth likely held steady too, at 3.9% y/y. Payroll gains to remain healthy The 139,000 rise in …
The Israel-Iran conflict escalated dramatically and, even more quickly, subsided over the past week. The focus now is on whether Iran pursues diplomacy or seeks to restart its nuclear efforts. To recap, this time last week, Israel and Iran were trading …
The Fed’s proposed loosening of supplementary leverage ratio (SLR) rules for big banks might help to improve demand for Treasuries, but we’re not yet persuaded it will outweigh the other headwinds facing the world’s largest bond market. Treasuries have …
Qatar Airways-Boeing deal steals headlines but underlying data positive The surge in durable goods orders in May was mostly driven by the Qatar Airways-Boeing deal announced during President Trump’s visit, but the small rise in core orders shows there …
Inflation eases, Copom’s tightening cycle over The fall in Brazil’s headline inflation rate to 5.3% y/y in the first half of June reinforces our view that the central bank won’t push through further interest rate hikes. An easing cycle is likely to begin …
India’s economy has had a strong first half of the year and is poised to grow by 7% in both 2025 and 2026, making it a global outperformer. The recent sharp drop in inflation has enabled the Reserve Bank of India to frontload its easing cycle and we think …
The US-brokered Iran-Israel ceasefire has allayed fears of the conflict spilling over into the Gulf and concerns about a closure of the Strait of Hormuz have diminished. This has eased the risks to the Gulf’s capacity to ship oil to market, but it has …
A comparatively attractive spread over risk-free rates and solid investor sentiment mean there is scope for Swiss prime property yields to fall further than in most other European markets this year. That would allow all-property capital values to rise …
Most major DMs need to shrink their primary budget deficits significantly and most will find it hard to do so. This will exacerbate growing worries about fiscal sustainability. The US and France have most to do. Government deficits in the major DMs remain …
Our View: Emerging Europe is less vulnerable than other EM regions to higher US import tariffs, but we have still recently nudged down some of our GDP growth forecasts for this year. Monetary policy will be eased slightly more quickly than we previously …
Overview – We expect GDP growth across most of Asia to soften in 2025, with many countries likely to record below-consensus growth. The risk of escalating trade tensions remains a key concern, particularly for Vietnam, which is highly dependent on US …
Overview – Australia’s economy is struggling to gain momentum, while the recent rebound in activity in New Zealand isn’t likely to be sustained. As the lull in activity lifts spare capacity, underlying price pressures should continue to ease in both …
With the S&P 500 almost back at a record-high, we take stock of the different drivers of the US stock market’s recent (mis)fortunes. We suspect that the conditions will soon be back for equities in the US to lead those in the rest of the world. Four …
25th June 2025
A downbeat view on new supply underpins our overall CRE outlook. In the short term, the risks skew firmly to the downside and recent economic disruption reinforces this, while further out tight financial conditions and ongoing cost and labor pressures …
Overview – Exports would almost certainly have weighed on China’s growth whatever happened this year, but US tariffs – even at their reduced rate – will worsen the drag. Fiscal support has been propping up domestic demand but will provide less of a …
Africa Chart Pack (Jun. 2025) …
This webpage has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Elevated mortgage rates flatten recent momentum The large fall in new home sales in May cancels out all of the positivity of the past couple of months and serves as a valuable …
If it is implemented in full and funded through borrowing, the target for NATO members to raise defence spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035 could push debt burdens up by 10% of GDP or more over the next decade. This would add to fiscal risks in some …
The One Canadian Economy Act (Bill C-5) is a positive step towards reducing dependency on the US in the long run. But it will do little to offset the blow to trade from tariffs given that even fast-tracked infrastructure projects would still take years to …
CNB leaves rates on hold, easing cycle at an end The Czech National Bank (CNB) left its policy rate on hold today, at 3.50%, and we think that further monetary easing is unlikely this year. That is a slightly more hawkish view than the consensus, which …
Germany’s budget plans for 2025-29 confirm that the much anticipated big fiscal stimulus is coming and leave us comfortable with our view that GDP growth will pick up significantly from next year and the deficit will rise to as much as 4% of GDP. The …
India’s goods trade deficit with China is now at a record high. This largely reflects rising goods imports from China which, while bringing economic benefits in some areas, are also raising concerns over the threat posed to domestic industry. Given …
Despite solid take-up the industrial vacancy rate has risen to a 10-year high, which reflects occupiers shifting into new buildings at the expense of the secondhand market. We expect that dynamic to continue and a further small rise in vacancy will push …
Today’s hold does not mark the end of the easing cycle Thailand’s central bank (BoT) today left interest rates unchanged at 1.75%, but the dovish commentary from the press conference supports our view that further easing is likely over the coming months. …
Sharp fall in inflation likely to reinforce RBA’s dovish pivot With price pressures easing markedly in May, the RBA may well front-load monetary easing to a greater degree than we’re predicting. According to the monthly CPI indicator, headline inflation …
The overnight announcement of a ceasefire between Israel/US and Iran has brought commodity and financial markets largely back to their pre-conflict square one. While tensions remain high and could easily re-ignite, our sense is that attention will now …
24th June 2025
Our China Activity Proxy suggests growth slowed further in May, with US tariffs weighing on industrial activity. While services growth did pick up, that seems to have been driven by a temporary boost from the consumer goods trade-in scheme. We expect …
After Israel and Iran agreed to stop fighting, Group Chief Economist Neil Shearing and Chief Climate and Commodities Economist David Oxley are on this special episode of the Weekly Briefing to discuss what follows, including why oil prices are set to …
Overview – We think the short-term outlook for capital values is poor, with valuations looking stretched across all measures. This does not appear to be reflected in other forecasts, meaning our forecasts for the next two years remain significantly below …
The latest data suggest that the boost to industry and trade from businesses front-running US tariffs is over. Manufacturing activity softened in April and May, and new orders have weakened. While consumer confidence has partially rebounded from …
