The Q3 RICS commercial survey painted a somewhat mixed picture of the market. There was a slight improvement in investment and capital value expectations, but rental expectations were revised down. That highlights that the road to recovery for commercial …
31st October 2024
The monetary “day job” is going to get harder We have argued in the past that, although central banks have some tools to help propel the green transition along at the margin, responsibility for tackling climate change is best left to fiscal and regulatory …
BoJ Governor Ueda sounded more optimistic today and we’re sticking to our forecast of another rate hike at the Bank’s next meeting in December, though we don’t expect further tightening in 2025 . It came as no surprise that the Bank left its policy rate …
This report was first published on 31 st October covering the official PMIs. We added commentary on the Caixin manufacturing PMI on 1 st November and on the Caixin services and composite PMIs on 5 th November. Economy continues to regain momentum The PMIs …
This is a revamped version of our quarterly Financial Risk Monitor to include commentary and analysis of our latest EM risk indicators. Currency risks ease further, regional divergence among fiscal risks Financial vulnerabilities have declined further …
30th October 2024
The South African Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) was presented as a “pro-growth” statement, but the numbers underscore that the government has no room to loosen the fiscal stance. Continued fiscal austerity will help to sustain investor …
The outbreak of unrest in Mozambique after contested elections is unlikely to have a large impact on growth in the near term. But any attempts by the government to loosen fiscal policy to appease protestors or, further out, disruptions to large gas …
EMs are playing a growing role as substitute markets for Chinese exporters that face rising trade barriers in DMs. A second trade war with a re-elected President Trump would only accelerate that shift. It is plausible that a sizeable portion of the loss …
The outcome of the US election won’t have a sizeable impact on most commodity prices over the next few months. Instead, differences between the candidates’ views on vehicle emissions, LNG exports and foreign policy stance on Iran could affect oil and gas …
29th October 2024
Despite the sharp fall in job openings, September’s JOLTS data show a labour market normalising rather than rapidly deteriorating. With October’s payrolls gain likely to have been hampered by temporary disruptions, the Fed should feel confident to cut …
Our measure of capital outflows from EMs has jumped to its highest level since July 2022 amid the recent surge in US Treasury yields and strengthening of the dollar. If Donald Trump wins the US election, there is plenty of scope for these market moves to …
All our analysis on how the US election could affect emerging market economies can be found on our dedicated webpage . A key risk for Mexico from the US election is that a Trump administration could withdraw from the USMCA free-trade agreement. In a …
Softer rental prospects, less scope for yields to fall and lower income returns look set to weigh on French residential property returns compared to Germany, the UK and the US in the coming years. This Update uses a similar methodology to our recent Focus …
The NCREIF Q3 index posted a positive return for the first time in two years, with only offices recording a negative outturn. But with firmer evidence that poorly capitalized banks have been less likely to mark loans as non-performing, as well as …
28th October 2024
In light of the worsening outlook for economic growth and inflation in the euro-zone, we are making major downward revisions to our ECB interest rate forecast. We now think the Bank will implement back-to-back 50bp rate cuts in December and January, and …
Investor sentiment towards Argentina has improved significantly in the past few months and it now looks like the government will probably be able to make the sovereign debt repayments that are due next year. But there are still no real signs that the …
The possibility of looser fiscal policy than previous planned in the upcoming UK Budget on 30 th October suggests the risks to our forecast that the 10-year gilt yield will fall to 3.50% by end-2025 are skewed to the upside, even if a repeat of the …
New bank lending has risen recently as the interest rates on loans have begun to edge down, but it is still weak. While it will probably continue to increase gradually in the coming months, the ECB might need to cut its policy rates substantially to give …
25th October 2024
The government’s new immigration plan implies that the population will decline by 0.2% in both 2025 and 2026, a huge shift from population growth of almost 3% over the past two years. That means GDP growth is likely to remain subdued in the next couple of …
24th October 2024
The latest flash PMIs suggest that GDP growth got off to a weak start in Q4 in most major advanced economies. The surveys also imply a slowdown in both services activity and employment growth in October, meaning that the ECB and Bank of England may up the …
We held online Drop-In sessions this week to discuss how we factor the US election into our thinking on the macro and market outlook for the US and other parts of the world. See here for a recording of the session focused on the US and here for the rest …
A victory for Donald Trump in the US election would probably result in higher US Treasury yields and a stronger dollar. That’s an environment in which central banks in EMs with strained balance sheets (notably Turkey) could hike rates and others that are …
Saudi Arabia’s economy is making a steady recovery as solid growth in the non-oil sector offsets low oil production. Growth will continue to pick up over the coming quarters, but the drivers will change. Oil output is set to rise, potentially sharply, …
We discussed the Bank’s policy decision in a Drop-In. You can view the recording here . The weak economic backdrop means we still see a strong case for the Bank of Canada to follow its larger 50bp cut today, which took the policy rate to 3.75%, with …
23rd October 2024
Recent threats by Donald Trump to impose tariffs on Mexico’s vehicle sector could just be pre-election bluster or an attempt to get concessions from Mexico. But if implemented, they would deal a big blow to Mexico’s economy – a 0.6% drop in real GDP for …
Uruguay‘s election on Sunday is unlikely to change the path of economic policy but will have big implications for relations with China. Arguably more important than the election itself is the outcome of the pension referendum taking place at the same time …
We expect Spain’s public debt ratio to continue falling for the next three or four years, helping to support demand for Spanish government bonds. However, further ahead its debt-to-GDP ratio is likely to rise again as population ageing and a lack of …
There is growing concern about how the green transition may create stranded real estate assets, impacting negatively on both lenders and investors. We can get some idea of the scale of the problem in Dutch markets where EPC targets have been more …
We argued last year that the relative strength of Japan’s stock market mostly reflected the weak yen rather than a fundamental transformation of its corporate sector. Developments since then suggest that we were right and with the yen set, in our view, to …
A Trump victory in the US election would accelerate the structural shifts that are a major challenge for Europe including rising protectionism, reduced export opportunities to China and the US, and the need to spend more on defence at a time when fiscal …
22nd October 2024
Following a record high in August, our proprietary measure of China’s green export volumes edged down in September. Meanwhile, China’s exports of EVs to Europe surged despite the recent EU tariffs, and we expect continued strong performance in China’s …
We expect Swiss inflation to average less than 0.5% next year and there are several key downside risks that could push inflation over the edge, namely lower oil prices than we expect, a stronger franc and lower housing rent. These risks will encourage the …
The strong recovery in property equities prices across the UK, euro-zone and US implies larger rises in commercial property capital values by the end of the year than we are currently forecasting. However, property equities have been boosted by the …
Alternatives have grown in importance in portfolios in recent years and structural drivers including AI, an aging population and poor housing affordability point to further growth in occupier demand for these assets. With investors increasingly looking …
With two weeks to go until election day, Donald Trump has opened a meaningful lead over Kamala Harris in betting markets, although the latest polling suggests the race remains too close to call. To recap, we suspect Trump’s proposed curbs on immigration …
The boom in bank lending in Qatar in the 2010s has unwound so far in a relatively orderly manner. Banks are well capitalised and are able to absorb a far greater rise in non-performing loans than we have seen. Still, there are lingering vulnerabilities …
The depreciation pressure on the renminbi has abated over recent months and the USD/CNY rate is currently trading around our end-2024 target of 7.10. But with US interest rate expectations on the rise again, China’s stimulus announcements continuing to …
21st October 2024
Upward revisions by the ULI consensus mean our forecasts remain more downbeat over the next couple of years. However, this is largely down to our weaker view on industrial, while our forecasts for the other sectors are more optimistic, particularly for …
Concerns that Brazil’s economy is overheating are justified – to an extent. But the economy looks very different now compared with the last bout of overheating in the early 2010s. As a result, while inflation pressures are likely to remain uncomfortably …
The outcomes of the EM central bank meetings since the beginning of October underscore the point that Asia will lead the next phase of the EM easing cycle. Central banks in Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America are slowing the pace of (or pausing) …
Although corporate credit spreads in the US and the UK have nearly reached multi-decade lows, we think they will remain near those levels over the next year or so. And we don’t see spreads in the euro-zone widening either, despite dim economic prospects. …
18th October 2024
With the means, motive and opportunity for Saudi Arabia to undergo a reversal in oil policy falling into place, this Update thinks through the possible ramifications of such a move. In short, considerable spare capacity in OPEC and more resilient …
17th October 2024
Before the global financial crisis, 50bp interest rate cuts by the ECB were more common than 25bp reductions. Circumstances today are different, but if ECB policymakers are convinced that they need to keep cutting, we think they would not shy away from a …
Christine Lagarde’s message in today’s ECB press conference was distinctly dovish and supports our view that the ECB will cut interest rates by 25bp at each of the next few meetings, at the very least. It wouldn’t be surprising if the Bank opted for a …
Dutch prime logistics rent growth is set to be among the highest in the region over the next few years. That reflects both strong prospects for leasing, thanks to a bright economic outlook and greater e-commerce penetration, and relatively tight supply. …
The detailed breakdown of September’s inflation data, published this morning, showed that underlying price pressures softened slightly. We think that core inflation – and services inflation in particular – will keep falling over the rest of this year and …
We may learn more about the size and structure of China’s fiscal package over the next couple of weeks, but based on what we know the impact on advanced economies will probably be small. The bigger global story is that even if the package is much bigger …
16th October 2024
Supply continues to outpace demand Lower mortgage rates have provided a small boost to demand but, with new listings outpacing sales again in September, the sales-to-new listing ratio suggests that house prices will soon fall. Meanwhile, developers seem …
South Africa’s economy continued to pick-up in the middle of Q3 but the recovery is taking place at different speeds across sectors; lower inflation is supporting consumer-facing sectors but industry is lagging behind. As the drag from supply-side …
We are nudging down our forecast for economic growth in France next year from 1.0% to 0.7% because of the government’s plan to tighten fiscal policy. That said, we think the deficit will come down much less than the government plans, from 6.1% of GDP this …
