Low inflation and tariff uncertainty supports case for further monetary easing The central bank in the Philippines (BSP) resumed its easing cycle today by lowering its policy rate by 25bp (to 5.50%) and in its communications highlighted the threat to …
10th April 2025
Housing activity set to slow in the near term March’s RICS survey suggests both the weak domestic economy and the headwinds from the global tariff storm continue to increase the downside risks to our 2025 forecasts for housing demand and prices. But the …
Trade war to exacerbate deflation Deflationary pressures persisted last month and will almost certainly deepen over the coming quarters as it becomes more difficult for Chinese firms to export their excess supply. CPI deflation eased from -0.7% y/y in …
Although President Donald Trump was able to resist the stock market sell-off, once the bond market began to weaken too, it was only a matter of time before he folded on his eye-wateringly high tariffs. Trump has announced an immediate 90-day pause, during …
9th April 2025
US Treasuries are not benefitting from market turmoil, and we suspect they will keep struggling. Today, China announced that it would charge an additional 84% tariff on imports from the US starting on Thursday. Unsurprisingly, equity markets didn’t take …
The lasting fallout on oil demand from President trump’s ‘liberation day’ tariffs and subsequent retaliation, coupled with OPEC+’s plan to quicken supply increases, pose a major downside to oil prices. There are still many moving parts at this stage and …
Enter your own universal and specific tariff scenarios and see the impact on the effective tariff rate, inflation and GDP. If you have subscriber access to the data underlying this dashboard, you can download it via the menu options in the top right of …
More encouraging figures from the previously underperforming Midwest region suggest that it may be turning a corner. But while this may continue for several quarters more, there has not been enough improvement in the longer-term fundamentals to expect it …
While Canada escaped “liberation day” relatively unscathed, the imposition of US tariffs and risk of more to come will still weigh on exports, consumer confidence and investment. With immigration also plunging, we now expect GDP to expand by just 0.4% …
Some oil producers, such as the UAE and Kuwait, should be able to easily weather a period of low oil prices. But a sustained decline in prices would be a bigger challenge for Saudi Arabia, which would need to tighten fiscal policy, and producers with weak …
Oil prices have now fallen well below the level needed to balance current accounts across much of the Gulf, which may raise concerns about the sustainability of the region’s dollar pegs. And, indeed, there are some tentative signs of pressure on pegs. …
With the exception of some industrial assets, commercial property in the UK is not directly impacted by the higher tariffs announced by President Trump and property equities have performed relatively well. Nevertheless, a 5% fall in property equity prices …
While gold prices have edged down since “Liberation Day”, this is not unusual during a sudden equity market selloff. In fact, gold’s track record suggests that prices are likely to rise from here, especially if a worst-case scenario for the US economy and …
Higher US tariffs will be a substantial drag on the euro-zone economy this year. Looser fiscal policy in Germany will give a small boost in 2026, but overall we expect the euro-zone to grow fairly slowly in the coming years. We also think that the tariffs …
The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) decision to cut the repo rate by another 25bps today to 6.00% comes as no surprise given the recent sharp drop in inflation and the headwinds from US tariffs. But the dovish tone of the communications reinforces our …
RBI’s easing cycle will run further than most expect The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) decision to cut the repo rate by another 25bps today to 6.00% comes as no surprise given the recent sharp drop in inflation and the headwinds from US tariffs. But the …
Unless they are rolled back, the latest US tariff hikes mean that China’s shipments to the US will more than halve over the coming years, even assuming the renminbi weakens to 8.00/$. This will reduce China’s GDP by somewhere between 1.0-1.5% depending on …
Even if Japan’s attempts to negotiate a trade deal with Trump succeed quickly, concerns about the impact of escalating tensions between the US and other trading partners will force the Bank of Japan to keep interest rates unchanged for a few more months. …
RBNZ will cut further than most anticipate The RBNZ cut rates by 25bp at its meeting today, while signalling that further easing would be forthcoming in the months ahead. We think the Bank will ultimately loosen policy settings to a greater degree than …
Europe Chart Pack (April 2025) …
8th April 2025
We think the turnaround in longer-dated Treasury yields has bit further to run, if – and it’s a big if – the worst is now over for the US stock market. One reason for the volte-face in bonds is second thoughts about the prospects for Fed policy after …
President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs are particularly high on some of the lowest-income EMs, which are also among the most vulnerable to the suspension of US aid flows. That raises the risk of balance of payments strains, and also provides an opening for …
Last week we held a series of roundtable discussions with clients in our London office about how the pandemic will shape real estate into the 2030s. This note shares our answers to some of the most interesting questions raised, covering the pandemic’s …
Vietnam is pulling out all of the stops to secure concessions from Donald Trump. If the tariffs remain in place, the hit to Vietnam’s economy would be severe and would prompt a sharp cut to our GDP growth and interest rate forecasts for this year. Not …
The apartment market is on track to recover over our five-year forecast, with new supply falling back sharply, while demand remains solid. However, the size and speed of recovery will differ widely by region. The largest vacancy rate declines – around …
7th April 2025
The Bank of Canada’s quarterly business and consumer surveys were nowhere near as bad as we feared, but that may only be because the survey periods preceded the most recent tariff announcements. Either way, it’s clear that those tariffs and uncertainty …
Israel holds rates steady ahead of Trump-Netanyahu talks The Bank of Israel (BoI) left its policy rate on hold again today, at 4.50%, and sounded a bit more hawkish than at its previous meeting despite highlighting possibly quite a large hit to economic …
Tariffs unlikely to bring forward rate cuts The communications accompanying the decision by the National Bank of Romania (NBR) to leave its policy rate on hold today, at 6.50%, highlighted two-sided risks to inflation and economic activity from US trade …
March’s batch of PMIs across much of the Middle East and North Africa came in softer as worries about a global trade war weighed on activity. Those concerns will have only mounted in the wake of President Trump’s tariff announcement last week. And with …
The tariff storm is far from over. President Trump and some of his key officials used the weekend to dig in their heels on his ‘Liberation day’ tariffs, and European and Asian markets have fallen heavily again on Monday while S&P 500 futures point to …
The carnage in global equity markets has continued after President Trump doubled down on his tariff plans, noting that “sometimes you have to take a medicine to fix something”. We still think he will lower the dosage by paring back his tariffs. But, if he …
Retail sales picked up in February This publication has been updated with additional analysis Euro-zone retail sales rose in February for the first time since September last year, and we expect consumer spending to grow at a modest pace over the coming …
Australia and New Zealand are safe havens in the current global trade storm because they have small manufacturing sectors, export little to the US and haven’t been hit with high US tariffs. We’re therefore sticking to our forecast that the RBA will only …
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Housing market loses steam in Q1 The 0.5% m/m fall in Halifax house prices in March provides further evidence that the boost from buyers rushing to complete home purchases before …
German industry already weak of tariff hit The fall in German industrial production in February left it very weak. With US demand generating around 7% of German manufacturing value added, the sector will be hit hard by US tariffs. And higher defence and …
Underlying wage growth remains strong We suspect that the sharp slowdown in regular earnings growth in February is just a sampling anomaly rather than a sign of genuine weakness. With this year’s spring wage negotiations resulting in a larger pay hike …
Clinton adviser James Carville famously quipped that he would like to be reincarnated as the bond market but, as President Donald Trump is now finding out, the equity market can be pretty intimidating too, with the S&P 500 down by more than 10% since his …
6th April 2025
At the end of one of Lenin’s “weeks when decades happen”, senior economists from Capital Economics briefed clients on the implications of the news that China is retaliating aggressively to Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs plan, including whether Europe …
4th April 2025
President Trump’s extraordinary “Liberation Day” announcement has prompted a major risk-off event across financial markets, sending safe-haven currencies soaring and commodity currencies crashing. It has also put paid to the idea that his aggressive …
Republicans need to get with the recycling program President Donald Trump’s big “Liberation Day” announcement went down badly in the markets, as fears mounted that the bigger-than-expected reciprocal tariffs would trigger a recession. The surge in March …
It’s not often that the US Employment Report is a sideshow. But that’s been the case today, as the ongoing fall-out from Donald Trump’s swingeing “reciprocal” tariffs and China’s strong response to them have had a bigger effect on the markets. Admittedly, …
President Trump’s tariffs, retaliation by China, and OPEC+’s decision to accelerate the pace of oil output increases have caused the price of Brent crude to tumble to its lowest level in four years. If the Gulf states persist with the production plans set …
A weaker renminbi, just not against the dollar China’s response today to President Trump’s 34% “reciprocal tariff” on China was more aggressive than we had anticipated . (Initial thoughts on Trump’s tariff on China can be found here .) The moves take the …
