Mortgage rates rose to a 12-week high in the first week February, and a further rise in the 10-year Treasury yield to 1.5% means they will increase to around 3.2% by the end of the year. Alongside surging house prices and record low inventory, that …
12th February 2021
Global growth slowed throughout the fourth quarter and most economies entered the new year on a weak footing. We have limited hard data for 2021 so far, but timely surveys and our high-frequency Mobility Trackers are generally consistent with a further …
10th February 2021
Our forecast that the euro-zone economy rebounds strongly hinges on Covid-19 restrictions being lifted by the middle of the year. Unfortunately, vaccine supply shortages, distribution problems and concerns about variants could force governments to keep …
4th February 2021
After having been boosted by stockbuilding ahead of the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 st December, exports and imports were always going to fall in January. But the added drags of COVID-19, the new Brexit customs procedures and the surge in …
3rd February 2021
Extreme speculative movements in the prices of a handful of stocks and of silver have generated a lot of headlines over the past month. But those surges have not been reflected in the performance of risky assets more generally, many of which have taken a …
2nd February 2021
Underlying inflation picked up strongly in New Zealand in Q4, with core inflation rising above the mid-point of the RBNZ’s 1-3% target band. That supports our view that the RBNZ will not cut rates further. But we expect strong house price growth and a …
1st February 2021
Short-term funding costs for banks have risen sharply during the past couple of weeks. The 7-day depository repo rate (DR007), which has been flagged by the PBOC as a key benchmark and focus of monetary policy, jumped over 100 basis points to a two-year …
29th January 2021
Governments across Sub-Saharan Africa seem to have mixed plans for fiscal policy this year. There are signs that policymakers in some countries – including Nigeria, Ghana and perhaps Kenya – will continue to provide stimulus in 2021, reducing the risk of …
28th January 2021
The surge in COVID-19 cases and tightening of containment measures across most of the region are likely to bring the economic recovery in Latin America to a standstill in Q1. High-frequency mobility indicators have stayed well below their pre-Christmas …
Headline inflation has crept higher in most countries across Emerging Asia over the past few months and looks set to rise sharply over the first half of this year due to a rebound in energy price inflation caused by the recovery in global oil prices. …
27th January 2021
10-year gilt yields haven’t been significantly dragged higher by 10-year US Treasury yields because, unlike their US counterparts, break-even inflation rates in the UK have not been boosted by expectations of a big fiscal stimulus, a rise in inflation and …
Governments across the Middle East and North Africa have begun the roll out of COVID-19 vaccines with parts of the Gulf making a particularly strong start. The UAE and Bahrain have already administered vaccines to around 26% and 8% of their populations, …
26th January 2021
Canada will receive only enough doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to provide the equivalent of one dose to 16% of the population by the end of the first quarter. By contrast, even in the unlikely event that there is no further improvement in the …
The roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines is getting underway across EMs, but in many cases progress has been slow-going . In the meantime, many countries are suffering from worsening outbreaks. New cases are high and/or rising across Latin America (see Chart 1), …
22nd January 2021
Russia and Poland have been regional outperformers in recent months due the relatively light-touch containment measures in the former and the strength of export-orientated sectors in the latter. But Turkey’s recovery has come off the boil and strict …
A return to rental growth and stronger capital value growth in December hint to a turnaround in UK commercial property. But this was a surprising development and we think it is too early to call the recovery given the headwinds in early 2021. With virus …
Recent data show the current wave of virus infections weighing on the economy, with retail sales falling again in December and the labour market recovery stalling. We think fourth-quarter GDP growth slowed to 4.5% annualised, but the relatively softer end …
21st January 2021
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is set to tighten regulation of non-bank financial companies (NBFCs) over the coming weeks. Alongside stricter audits of many smaller lenders, the RBI is likely to require NBFCs to maintain larger buffers of liquid assets. …
Our forecast for a 1.5% q/q fall in consumption in Q1 rests on the assumption that some businesses in virus hotspots will be forced to close in order to contain Japan’s most severe wave of the pandemic yet. But signs that new infections may already have …
20th January 2021
House price growth surged to 8.4% y/y in October, as booming home sales have combined with record low inventory to boost values. But that rise in prices has already offset the improvement to affordability provided by record low mortgage rates. (See Chart …
15th January 2021
The latest data suggest that activity was more resilient in Q4 than we had previously feared, with GDP in Norway and Sweden likely to have grown relative to the previous quarter, for example. That said, mobility data indicate that retail activity was hit …
14th January 2021
While the economic fallout will not be as severe as it was with the first lockdowns, the surge in virus cases will weigh on activity in Q1. Vaccine rollouts should provide a boost to the global recovery, but not until the second half of the year. …
12th January 2021
Overview – The prices of industrial metals continued to surge in December, capping off a strong 2020. However, we expect that prices will fall this year as growth in China’s demand slows on the back of the gradual withdrawal of fiscal stimulus and tighter …
8th January 2021
The extension of lockdowns has dashed hopes of an early rebound in economic activity. Instead, the economy is likely to contract in the first quarter of this year. After falling quite steeply at the end of last year, the number of new virus cases in the …
7th January 2021
Overview – Energy commodity prices for the most part ended 2020 on a high, buoyed by strong seasonal demand, an increase in investor risk appetite and a weaker US dollar. And while energy commodities were the underperformer in 2020, they should be the …
Overview – Commodity prices rose in December in spite of a tightening of COVID-19 restrictions in a number of developed economies, which will weigh on commodities demand at the start of this year. Markets seem to be focusing on a brightening demand …
5th January 2021
COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the world economy, which is set to contract the most since WWII this year. China has not been immune – it is on track for its slowest growth since the Mao era – but set against the gloomy global backdrop, its economic …
23rd December 2020
COVID-19 has ravaged India’s economy in 2020, and GDP is all but certain to have suffered its largest slump on record this year. But there are reasons for optimism as the year draws to a close. Several activity indicators point to a continued recovery in …
The province-wide shutdowns recently announced in Ontario and Quebec raise the downside risks to our near-term forecasts, although the start of the coronavirus vaccination program last week provides a reason to be hopefully about prospects in 2021. The …
22nd December 2020
Korea , Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand are all experiencing major new outbreaks of the virus, which pose a significant downside risk to our relatively upbeat GDP forecasts for these countries for 2021. The lesson from Vietnam , which experienced a big …
The 7.9% q/q recovery in consumption in Australia in Q3 still left it 6.8% below pre-virus levels. Even excluding Victoria, consumption only recovered to around 4.5% below pre-virus levels. And since the huge stimulus payments continued and labour income …
The latest national accounts data from Sub-Saharan Africa tell a story of the good, the bad and the ugly. South Africa’s economy mounted a surprisingly strong recovery in Q3, and a solid rebound in Nigeria’s non-oil sector more than offset weakness in the …
18th December 2020
Rental falls slowed and capital values returned to growth in November, suggesting that we may be too pessimistic in predicting further falls in values. But, with tight virus restrictions remaining and structural shifts weighing on the rental outlook, we …
Positive vaccine news has not changed our view that monetary policy in many emerging markets (EMs) will generally remain loose for some time yet. That is a key reason why we still expect EM local currency government bonds yields to stay low by historical …
After falling in May and June, house prices shrugged off the collapse in GDP and the decline in employment to surge in the second half of the year. (See Chart 1.) As a result, annual house price growth in Q4 is on track to be just over 6%, the strongest …
The OPEC+ agreement earlier this month to increase oil supply will mean that downturns in hydrocarbon sectors across the Gulf will start to ease. And, of course, the Gulf countries will also benefit from higher prices – Brent crude broke through $50pb …
Daily new COVID-19 infections have levelled off or fallen in most parts of Central Europe and there are signs that activity has started to rebound. But the fresh rise in new cases this month in Slovakia and the Czech Republic underlines the challenges …
17th December 2020
PM Suga’s decision on Tuesday to halt the Go To Travel campaign for two weeks from 28 th December may put the recovery in services spending into temporary reverse. It comes after authorities in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya this week extended requests for bars …
There is now clear evidence that the continued surge in COVID-19 infections and restrictions imposed to control its spread are once again weighing on the economy, with employment growth slowing sharply in November and retail sales dropping back. Moreover, …
16th December 2020
Recoveries in Latin America are under threat from a fresh rise in new COVID-19 cases, particularly in Brazil, Mexico and Chile. Policymakers in all three countries have tightened restrictions which will weigh on activity this month and into early 2021. …
The recent swings in sterling triggered by shifts in sentiment towards the chances of a Brexit deal have left little room for the pound to appreciate if there’s a deal, but plenty of room for it to depreciate if there’s a no deal. As the markets appear to …
We think there is scope for global equities to make more headway over the next couple of years, against the backdrop of a recovering global economy and supportive monetary and fiscal policy. November saw the biggest monthly increases in MSCI’s World Index …
As well as being a game-changer for economic prospects next year (see here ), the positive news on the vaccine front has also helped to ease the upward pressure on the Swiss franc against the euro. The franc briefly dropped to its lowest level of 2020 …
11th December 2020
Recent data confirm that global economic activity has continued to recover from the height of coronavirus restrictions in Q2. But while activity in China is now above its pre-virus level, there is still a major shortfall in other economies, including …
10th December 2020
The race to secure and approve COVID-19 vaccines is in full swing and, while roll-out will generally be slower in EMs than in DMs, immunisation of vulnerable populations over the next year or so is a realistic goal, which should allow lockdowns to be …
The surge in home sales looks to be running out of steam. The pending home sales index dropped back in September and October, and that points to a fall in existing home sales in November. (See Chart 1.) With pent-up demand from the spring now largely …
9th December 2020
The increase in working from home that appears to have led buyers to put less emphasis on location and more on space has not undermined London house prices. As of September, house price growth in the capital of 4.1% y/y was only marginally below that in …
Euro-zone GDP looks set to fall in Q4, but the prospect of vaccine rollouts has significantly improved the outlook. We think that containment measures will be scaled back when the most vulnerable members of society are inoculated, which will probably be …
4th December 2020
Overview – Industrial metals prices rallied in November. While we expect demand growth to stay strong in the months ahead, on the back of robust economic activity in China, we think that it will slow in 2021 as the Chinese government gradually withdraws …
Overview – The prospect of effective COVID-19 vaccines gave a lift to most energy commodities in November as they have raised the prospect of higher demand in 2021. We anticipate a particularly strong rebound in oil consumption next year and have raised …
