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The prospect of earlier interest rate cuts in the US and the euro-zone has led to a sharp fall in US and euro-zone government bond yields this week. 10-year US Treasury and German Bund yields have fallen by 15 and 22 basis points (bps), to 4.32% and 2.43% …
1st December 2023
Consumption falling but labour market tightening The October activity data were a mixed bag. While industrial production rose by 1% m/m, firms’ forecasts for the next couple of months were weak and point to a stagnation in output across Q4 following …
House prices falling again in Sydney and Melbourne Data released by CoreLogic today showed that house prices rose by 0.6% m/m in seasonally-adjusted terms in November, the smallest rise since April. And CoreLogic’s daily data show that house price …
It would be a stretch to say the government showed fiscal restraint in the Fall Economic Statement , but the announcement of only a few billion dollars in extra spending measures means that Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland did not pour much more fuel on …
24th November 2023
It’s true that the Chancellor’s pre-election splurge unveiled in this week’s Autumn Statement was the largest discretionary fiscal loosening (outside of the Covid period) since 2010. And at £20.3bn (0.6% of GDP) in 2028/29, it was the biggest tax-cutting …
Disapproval rating highest since Suga resignation The Cabinet Office’s disapproval rating has surpassed 50% for the first time since Fumio Kishida became Prime Minister two years ago. Surely one reason is the 5% plunge in real household disposable …
Surveys point to renewed slowdown in inflation Following a rather hawkish speech by Reserve Bank of Australia Michele Bullock, the financial markets now price in a 60% chance of another 25bp rate hike at the Bank’s February’s meeting, up from 40% before …
Post-SVB bank lending holding up well Credit where credit is due The SVB crisis back in mid-March sparked fears of a credit crunch, particularly among regional banks who are the principal source of funding for commercial real estate. Post-SVB, while the …
22nd November 2023
Falling inflation prompts rate cut speculation Better inflation news prompts big market moves The release of the slightly-better-than-expected October CPI data earlier this week triggered a massive reaction in markets, with the two-year Treasury yield …
17th November 2023
For the first time since the pandemic, the government will find itself with less fiscal room than expected when it provides an update of its plans next week. Accordingly, we doubt that the Fall Economic Statement will contain any major giveaways. Gloomy …
We’ll be discussing the UK macro and market consequences of the Chancellor’s Autumn statement at 10:00 EST/15:00 GMT on 22nd November. Register here for this 20-minute online briefing. The Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, will want to use next Wednesday’s Autumn …
Recent export resilience unlikely to last While the Q3 GDP release disappointed this week, there was some (qualified) good news in the October trade data. Although headline export growth slowed to 1.6% y/y, from 4.3% in September, a deceleration had been …
Spare capacity is opening up The ABS published a flurry of data this week, which prima facie suggest the labour market is still running red hot. Nevertheless, we remain confident in our decision to call time on the RBA’s tightening cycle . That’s largely …
Energy disinflation; credit conditions still tight Crude oil price slump to bolster disinflation Despite the ongoing war in the Middle East, crude oil prices have slumped – with the WTI benchmark down from a peak of more than $90 per barrel in late …
10th November 2023
The Bank of Canada’s latest Summary of Deliberations was more hawkish than most probably expected, with some members of the Governing Council still seemingly arguing for further rate hikes. That said, the weak GDP data released since the Bank’s last …
We may have to wait a bit longer for the start of the mild recession that we have been forecasting. The published quarterly growth rate of real GDP of 0.0% in Q3 implies that the economy stagnated. Although technically real GDP fell by 0.03% q/q (or £163 …
Edging away from ultra-loose policy The “Summary of Opinions” from last week’s Bank of Japan Monetary Policy Meeting released yesterday show a Policy Board increasingly confident that the long-term 2% target is coming into sight. The likelihood of …
One and done for the RBA The main event this week was the RBA delivering a widely-anticipated 25bp rate hike at its meeting on Tuesday. Our assessment is that the increase in the cash rate is essentially something of an insurance policy, aimed at ensuring …
There is now mounting evidence that the economy is set for a renewed slowdown in the fourth quarter and that inflationary pressures from the labour market continue to ease. Although markets have already moved to price out any real chance of further rate …
3rd November 2023
Employment edged up in October but the broad-based weakness of GDP growth, the depressed business surveys and the rapidly weakening housing market all suggest that the economy is in the early stages of recession. GDP probably contracted again last quarter …
We can understand if the phase “the lady doth protest too much” sprang to mind when listening to the Bank of England after it left interest rates at 5.25% for the second meeting in a row on Thursday. Indeed, the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street stressed so …
Threat of yen intervention remains As we had expected, the Bank of Japan retained its 1% cap for 10-year yields at this week’s meeting . However, by downgrading that cap to a “reference” and by stopping its daily fixed-rate operations offering to buy an …
Too soon to signal the all-clear Data released this week showed that the Australian consumer isn’t on the skids just yet. Indeed, with retail turnover having surged in September, sales values rose by a solid 0.8% q/q in Q3, their strongest quarterly …
The Bank of Canada’s insistence that inflationary risks have increased seems at odds with its new forecasts, which show a large degree of economic slack opening up next year. Our view that the Bank is still overestimating the near-term outlook for both …
27th October 2023
Has the AI productivity boom already begun? New Speaker, old problems The House Republicans finally managed to elect a new Speaker this week, with the caucus eventually rallying around Mike Johnson, who up until this week could hardly have been described …
Note: We’ll be discussing the latest Fed, ECB and Bank of England policy decisions in a Drop-In at 3pm GMT on Thursday 2 nd November . (Register here .) In the last few months there has been more concern over the accuracy of key economic data. The recent …
BoJ probably won’t tweak Yield Curve Control Media reports suggest that the Bank of Japan may tweak Yield Curve Control yet again at next week’s Board meeting. That’s certainly possible: 10-year JGB yields have risen sharply since the launch of the new …
RBA has more work to do Most of the data published this week highlight the imperative for the RBA tighten policy. To start with, Wednesday’s CPI release showed that Australia’s inflation problem is far from over. In fact, there are two pieces of …
The renewed weakness in the housing market and likelihood that mortgage interest cost inflation will soon ease are reasons to expect core inflation to trend lower in the coming months. Next week, the Bank of Canada’s new forecasts may show that it thinks …
20th October 2023
The apparent strength of third-quarter GDP growth won’t convince the Fed to resume hiking its policy rate, particularly with the ongoing surge in long-term bond yields presenting a growing threat to the economy. Q3 GDP growth strong Despite the recent hit …
We'll be discussing the implications of the end of the ultra-low interest rates era and the rise in R* in an online Drop-In at 12:30 GMT on Tuesday 31st October. (Register here .) The conflict in the Middle East continues to dominate the news and from an …
One more hike for the road Labour market data published yesterday showed that Australia's unemployment rate fell anew, from 3.7% to 3.6% in September, due largely to a pullback in workforce participation. As we explained in this Update , it increasingly …
Export values hit record high in September Export volumes bounced back by 4.6% m/m in September following the 6.1% m/m plunge in August. However, that left them a touch below the record high reached in July and means that export volumes have largely tread …
The fall in house prices in September shows just how quickly conditions in the housing market have shifted and the plunge in the sales-to-new listing ratio points to more weakness to come. That is another reason to expect the Bank of Canada to cut …
13th October 2023
There appears to be growing support at the Fed for the idea that the recent sell-off in long-term Treasuries reduces the need for further policy rate hikes, but the more persuasive reason for the Fed to pause is that inflation is continuing to ease …
Almost as fast as gilt yields rose (see here ) they have subsided. After surging from 4.68% on 2 nd October to a 21-year high of 5.11% last Friday, the 30-year gilt yield dropped to 4.72% on Thursday, although it has since ticked up to 4.85% on the back …
Economy probably won’t overheat The IMF this week revised up its forecast for Japan’s 2023 GDP growth from 1.4% to 2.0%, broadly matching our own. With activity rising much faster than its sustainable rate, any remaining spare capacity in the economy has …
What to expect from a change of guard The headlines this week have largely been dominated by the last leg of campaigning ahead of New Zealand’s general election on October 14 th . The latest opinion polling suggests that five parties are likely to cross …
The further rise in home listings in September and likelihood that mortgage rates will increase amid the global bond market sell-off suggests that house prices will soon fall again. While employment rose strongly in September, the fall in hours worked …
6th October 2023
Rising long rates a fiscal rather than monetary problem Surge in long yields not all due to higher for longer The conventional wisdom is that the recent surge in Treasury yields is a reaction to the Fed’s “higher for longer” message. But that surge has …
The recent rise in gilt yields has been almost as fast as the political furore over the cancellation of the northern leg of HS2 this week. The 30-year gilt yield rose from 4.68% at the start of last week to a 20-year high of 5.06% at the time of writing …
What to make of the bond market sell-off? We have covered the implications of the bond sell-off for the global economy here . Three additional points are worth making in relation to the euro-zone. First, the increase in yields and associated tightening of …
One more hike for good measure On Tuesday new RBA Governor Michele Bullock began her tenure not with a bang but with a whimper, by leaving the cash rate unchanged at 4.10%. What’s more, the statement accompanying the policy decision gave few indications …
Bond market sell-off pushes yen to one-year low The big event this week was the sharp fall in the yen after it breached 150 against the dollar while Tokyo was asleep in the early hours of Wednesday. Government officials have refused to comment on …
The recent acceleration in immigration may not be enough to keep the economy afloat, with the latest data and surveys pointing to an increased chance that GDP will contract over the rest of the year. 40,097,761 and counting Stats Can confirmed this week …
29th September 2023
GDP-GDI gap left largely unexplained In the end, the comprehensive revisions to the GDP data changed almost nothing of substance – the real economy was still 6.1% bigger in the second quarter of this year than it was pre-pandemic in the fourth quarter of …
After the huge upward revisions to the level of GDP in Q4 2021 announced at the start of September, which resulted in the UK leapfrogging Germany to sixth place in the league table of best performing G7 economies since the pandemic (see here ), Friday’s …
Sustainable 2% inflation coming into sight The minutes of the Bank of Japan’s July meeting revealed that Board members had a lively debate on the outlook for inflation and monetary policy. One member noted that “close attention was warranted on the risk …
Economic data flash mixed signals The big news out of Australia this week was the strong rise in consumer prices in August. Moreover, with underlying price pressures showing few signs of relenting, we’ve revised up our forecast for the RBA’s terminal cash …
Given clearer signs of economic weakness in recent weeks, we think the surprise increase in underlying inflation pressures in August means the Bank of Canada is more likely to keep interest rates at their current level for longer than to raise rates …
25th September 2023
