In this Update we take a look at the important elections and political events that are set to take place across Asia over the coming year, assessing the implications for policymaking and economic growth. One of the main political events of the year has …
20th January 2020
Underlying inflation pressures in the euro-zone have been building over the past five years, but so slowly that it’s barely perceptible. And rather than being the start of a new trend, the jump in core inflation at the end of last year is more likely to …
Although the share of global capital raised by European-focused funds has reduced in the last couple of years, there are indications that investors are starting to view real estate in Europe as increasingly attractive. This supports our view that demand …
PBOC on hold, for now The Loan Prime Rate (LPR) was unchanged in January. The one-year rate remained at 4.15% (both the Bloomberg consensus and our forecast was 4.10%), and the five-year rate stayed at 4.80%. The LPR replaced the PBOC’s traditional …
Against a weak outlook for both commercial property returns and the UK economy, any upside for development remains limited in 2020. After plummeting post-EU-referendum, there were signs of a stabilisation in development activity a year ago, though we …
17th January 2020
In a surprise move, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) left interest rates on hold yesterday even though policymakers don’t seem to be worried by the recent rise in inflation. We think that the easing cycle will be resumed in the coming months and forecast …
The Bank of Korea (BoK) left policy unchanged today, but with the economy struggling for momentum and price pressures set to remain weak, we expect the Bank to resume its easing cycle later this year. Today’s decision marks the second consecutive meeting …
Optimism about a Phase One deal has driven the rally in Chinese equities and the renminbi since late 2019. But now that the deal has been signed, this ought to be fully discounted in the markets. And with a Phase Two deal unlikely anytime soon, if at all, …
16th January 2020
South African policymakers surprised the markets by cutting the repo rate, but with inflation set to rise there is limited room for further easing. We expect just one further 25bp cut. Policymakers at the South African Reserve Bank unanimously voted to …
The account of December’s ECB meeting confirmed that the Governing Council is content to leave monetary policy unchanged for some time. But it left the option of further easing on the table – an option that we think it will take up in the second half of …
There has been a muted response in commodities markets to the signing of the Phase One trade deal between the US and China, perhaps because the good news was already priced in. That said, it may also be a reflection of the fact that China’s promises to …
The Turkish central bank (CBRT) cut interest rates by another 75bp today as policymakers bowed to pressure from President Erdogan for looser policy. More rate cuts are likely in the next few months. But the strong economic recovery will cause inflation to …
The deal signed yesterday between the US and China was broadly as expected and has not led us to change our economic forecasts. The apparent ceasefire in the battle over tariffs removes a downside risk to growth. But tariffs remain high and we suspect …
Strong November retail sales figures suggest that South Africa’s economy gained ground in the middle of Q4. Given power cuts in December, however, we expect that output still fell over the quarter as a whole. Activity figures released today showed that …
The signing of the Phase One trade deal is unlikely to spell the end of the trade war, and the disruption it has caused to Asian supply chains looks set to continue. On the plus side, the deal reduces the chances of an escalation in the near term, and if …
The narrowing in India’s goods trade deficit in December is likely to reverse over the coming months. But we think that a low level of commodity imports will help to prevent the external shortfall from ballooning to unsustainable levels. India’s monthly …
The Phase One trade agreement signed today removes the downside risk of a never-ending escalation of tariffs imposed by the US and China on each other’s imports, but the modest scale of the roll-back of existing tariffs means that the deal will provide …
15th January 2020
We have argued for some time that a near-term interest rate cut is a strong possibility. The market has now come around to this view. While the decision is a toss-up, at least until we see the next batch of data, our hunch remains that interest rates will …
We think that a combination of stronger supply, and weaker demand, growth will push the wheat market into a surplus this year. As a result, we expect wheat prices to drop by about 20% in 2020 . To recap, the price of wheat has surged to around 570 cents …
As the slowdown in household spending and the growth in e-commerce weighs on prime retail rents, we think that rents will fall in all Nordic cities this year. While most of continental Europe has been grappling with weakness in the retail sector, much of …
Hungary’s economy is likely to lose some steam this year, but loose policy will ensure that growth remains above potential. This will keep inflation high and economic imbalances will continue to build . The outperformance of Hungary’s economy last year …
Banks’ housing lending standards remain tight. But this hasn’t prevented housing arrears from climbing to fresh highs as household balance sheets are stretched. And given that we expect the unemployment rate to creep higher and income growth to remain …
While the price of gold remains elevated at present, we think it’s only a matter of time before it begins to ease back. Subdued gold imports in China and India and softer safe-haven demand should depress the price. Meanwhile, we expect that some US dollar …
14th January 2020
There is mounting evidence to suggest that business investment growth is set to rebound, which should help drive overall GDP growth back above its potential pace in the second half of this year. Looking at the latest hard data, the downturn in business …
China’s commodity imports were strong in December, and in 2019 as a whole, in part because a number of one-off structural factors boosted volumes. Looking ahead, we expect growth in commodity imports to ease back this year as China’s economy slows . …
The sharp rise in the Future Sales Indicator of the Business Outlook Survey (BOS) is surely the final nail in the coffin for the idea that the Bank of Canada might soon cut interest rates. The survey supports our view that GDP growth will rebound in the …
13th January 2020
We expect the S&P 500 to outperform Treasuries by much less in 2020 than in 2019, as government bond yields edge up, the equity risk premium stops tumbling, and corporate earnings continue to disappoint. While US large-cap equities and government bonds …
This decade is likely to be marked by slower growth and softer inflation in emerging markets. One consequence is that interest rates will probably be lower than most currently anticipate. A broad-based monetary easing cycle has been underway in emerging …
Five years after the so-called Frankenshock, the SNB is near the end of the road for conventional monetary easing. Accordingly, the Bank may be forced to make another radical policy choice if there is a substantial appreciation in the franc in the coming …
The swift appointment of Haitham bin Tariq as the Sultan of Oman, following the death of Sultan Qaboos, has eased fears that the country would enter a prolonged period of political uncertainty. But the new leader faces a difficult task of securing …
We think that the prices of wheat and soybeans will tumble this year on the back of high stocks. However, the outlook is more encouraging for the prices of some of other agricultural commodities, such as corn, which should rise due to a gradual upturn in …
Despite Spain’s relatively strong economic outlook compared to its European peers, with real prime rents at high levels and the economy losing momentum, we think that prime retail rents will fall in 2020. After growing by around 7% in 2018, there was …
Lower than expected interest rates would do little to boost house prices. After all, a shallower path for Bank Rate would reflect weaker than expected economic conditions. And in any case, there is only limited scope for further rate cuts, while mortgage …
10th January 2020
With mortgage rates set for a period of stability over the next couple of years changes in credit conditions, and in particular debt-to-income ratios, will be an important driver of house prices. Given the GSEs have been instructed to act …
There is no denying that last year was a disappointing one for commercial property, with returns likely to be at a decade low. While we do expect some improvement this year, we believe that the outlook will remain highly uncertain as the market deals with …
We think that oil prices will rise in 2020, as the market moves into a small deficit. In contrast, we expect natural gas prices to fall owing to strong supply growth and for this, in turn, to dampen coal prices . Last year, we forecast that the global …
Corporate bond markets in the US, the UK and the euro-zone have started 2020 on a strong footing, largely reflecting expectations that monetary policy there will remain accommodative for the foreseeable future. While we agree with investors that central …
Our measure of aggregate EM inflation, which hit a four and a half year high last month, should fall over the course of this year as the disruption caused by African Swine Fever fades. But this is largely a China story. For most EMs, higher oil prices and …
9th January 2020
Following the recent rise in US-Iran tensions, we estimate that the risk premium in the oil price briefly turned positive. After all, prices rose without there being any disruption to the physical supply of oil. However, regardless of what happens to the …
The surge in crude oil and natural gas production over the past decade has eliminated the petroleum-related trade deficit, but there is a risk that, echoing what happened in other countries that experienced similar surges, the energy revolution could yet …
The recent rise in inflation to multi-year highs across most of Central Europe has only a little further to run, but it will stay above central banks’ targets across the region this year. Policymakers will probably look through this and keep interest …
Recession risk remains low The chances of a recession in 2020 are still barely higher than the normal background risk. Our composite 12 month ahead probit model – based on the yield curve, financial conditions and various activity indicators – puts the …
Following relatively weak all-property returns last year, we expect that 2020 will see an improvement as the retail downturn bottoms out later in the year. Despite this, even a positive return of around 4% will be well behind what is expected for …
The French economy is likely to continue to perform reasonably well this year as solid consumer spending growth partly offsets fiscal tightening and a slowdown in investment. Moreover, the pensions reforms are likely to be passed, helping to keep …
South Africa’s manufacturing sector was struggling even before December’s power cuts, so production almost certainly fell in Q4. Given weakness in other sectors, we think that South Africa slipped into another technical recession last quarter. Figures …
While corporate earnings in the US will probably recover a bit this year, we think that they will fall short of expectations of a big rebound. And given that we don’t expect valuations to rise anything like as fast as they did last year, we anticipate …
Another surge in headline CPI inflation in December – most likely to a five-year high – would almost certainly bring an end to the RBI’s easing cycle. And a rise in core inflation over the coming quarters should prompt the central bank to switch to …
The continued slide in the ISM manufacturing index is increasingly hard to explain, but the wider evidence suggests the more upbeat Markit manufacturing PMI is providing a more accurate gauge of activity. The further fall in the ISM manufacturing index in …
8th January 2020
The further deterioration in the latest data have caused some to double down on their forecasts that the Bank of Canada will cut interest rates this year. But the weakness in November was mainly due to temporary factors and the business surveys suggest …
