Rent controls usually discourage new rental developments. But the Californian bill that is set to be signed into law may in fact boost the construction of new units. New rental buildings are exempt from the restrictions and, by ruling out any new local …
18th September 2019
We expect French industrial production growth to slow in the coming year or so. But it should continue to outperform German industry thanks to its focus on less cyclical products such as food, energy and aerospace, and on euro-zone rather than global …
The Brazilian government’s tax and budget reform plans would, if implemented, significantly improve the country’s longer-term fiscal health and productivity growth. But the proposals will face more opposition than the government’s recent efforts to …
Activity data for July suggest that South Africa’s recovery lost steam at the start of Q3. We remain comfortable with our below-consensus growth forecast of 0.5% for this year as a whole. Data released today showed that retail sales rose by 2.0% y/y in …
The “citizenship income” payment will boost Italy’s GDP growth next year by only about 0.1%, in part because take-up has been lower than predicted. While this also lowers the cost of the policy, the government will need to find much bigger savings to …
Smelter outages in China have led to a surge in the ShFE price of aluminium, and there is mounting speculation that the LME price will soon follow suit. We disagree. In contrast, our in-house model suggests that aluminium prices will fall in the coming …
The sharp rise in Swedish unemployment in August serves as further evidence that the Riksbank is unlikely to be able to tighten policy later this year, as it forecasts. The increase in Sweden’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in August, from 7.1% in …
17th September 2019
The euro-zone’s manufacturing downturn has dragged services growth lower this year. And with both employment and wage growth weakening, services will probably slow a little further next year. While the euro-zone slowdown has been concentrated in the …
Turkey’s central bank looks set to cut interest rates further over the coming months, but past experience suggests that the easing cycle will be short and that renewed lira weakness will eventually force policymakers to reverse course. We expect rate …
There is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the attacks on Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq oil facility but, so long as the worst of the disruption to oil supplies lasts no more than a few days, the hit to global energy markets and the Saudi economy should be …
16th September 2019
The attack on Saudi oil is unlikely to be a disaster for the global economy. Saudi production might resume quite quickly and even if it doesn’t, the implications for oil prices and developed economy inflation should be limited. But growing tensions in the …
Given the uncertainty about the impact on supply of this weekend’s attack on Saudi Aramco, we are not changing our oil price forecasts yet. However, in this Update , we outline three possible scenarios that could develop and what they would mean for …
The divergence between Central London office rental value growth and vacancy rates appears to have reflected a combination of the rising share of take-up by flexible office providers and weak landlord bargaining power. This is consistent with our forecast …
The implementation of a change to how student loans are classified in the public finances, on top of a jump in government spending so far this year and the 2019 Spending Round, means the Government’s fiscal target is dead in the water. But this shouldn’t …
The goods trade deficit was virtually unchanged in August and, even if export growth stays weak, we think that the shortfall will remain small over the coming quarters. Data released on Friday evening show that India’s monthly goods trade deficit widened …
The sharp rise in the spread between the 10-year Treasury yield and 30-year mortgage rate primarily reflects the speed at which yields dropped back. But tighter credit conditions also look to be playing a role. We expect the spread to ease back over the …
13th September 2019
Despite what Mr Trump’s tweet yesterday appears to suggest, we don’t think that the ECB is “trying, and succeeding, in depreciating the Euro”. And although we expect the euro to weaken further against the dollar this year, we think that appetite for risk, …
Vietnam’s decision to cut interest rates today is something of a surprise given that growth appears to be holding up well at the moment. Given the decent outlook for the economy, we don’t think the central bank will rush into cutting rates again soon. The …
Having mirrored the ECB’s 10bp interest rate cut this afternoon, we now expect the Danish Nationalbank to reduce its Certificates of Deposit rate again by the end of the year. Meanwhile, although the SNB is likely to stick with FX interventions for a …
12th September 2019
The continued strength of housing starts in August could be a sign that we are overestimating the size of the decline to come. This is unlikely to prevent a broader slowdown in GDP growth, however. Housing starts only edged up in August to 226,000 …
With today’s policy decision, Mario Draghi appears to have locked the ECB into QE for several years beyond his time in office. While the move was initially welcomed by financial markets, we doubt that it will be enough to re-invigorate the euro-zone …
Capital controls can be an effective tool if policymakers are able to plug loopholes and address the underlying economic vulnerabilities that initially resulted in pressures on the financial account. But this looks unlikely in EMs such as Argentina and …
The Turkish central bank delivered another larger-than-expected interest rate cut today and we now expect the one-week repo rate to reach a trough at 12.50% (previously 16.00%). But if we’re right in expecting inflation to start rising again and the lira …
Despite the slight improvement in the manufacturing sector, the batch of activity figures for July suggests that South Africa’s economic recovery in Q2 faded at the start of Q3. This adds to reasons to think that the Reserve Bank will cut its key policy …
Surging Chinese smelter output and faltering demand mean we think that zinc prices are set to drop by more than 15% by the end of this year and are unlikely to start recovering until the second half of 2020 . Our long-held bearishness on zinc prices has …
The dovish statement which accompanied today’s decision by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to leave its policy rate on hold at 3.00% suggests that the central bank is leaving the door open to further easing. We are sticking with our forecast that the Bank will …
Intervention by China’s government to halt the spread of African Swine Fever (ASF) and mitigate its impact on pork prices is proving ineffective. Inflation will next year rise above the government’s target for the first time in nearly a decade as a …
President Donald Trump’s call for the Fed to slash interest rates to zero or “less”, so that the Treasury can lock-in low borrowing costs for the very long term, sounds appealing in a sustained low inflation environment. But the evidence from other …
11th September 2019
The more dovish-than-expected press conference following today’s MPC meeting confirmed that the Polish central bank is placing more weight on concerns about the weak external environment than domestic inflationary pressures. While we think that inflation …
Uganda’s balance of payments position is looking increasingly unsustainable. The currency is likely to weaken and domestic demand is set to slow. We think that GDP growth will be a lot weaker than most currently expect over the coming years. Uganda’s …
Latin American currencies are likely to weaken further in the coming months alongside most EM currencies. But while we expect the Chilean peso and Peruvian sol to end next year stronger than their current level, the Brazilian real and Colombian peso will …
While we are revising up our once-bullish end-2019 forecasts for the prices of gold and silver, we think that the price rally this year has now run its course. Next year, we expect a recovery in bond yields and a rise in investor risk appetite to push …
Italian assets have rallied since a new ruling coalition between the Five Star Movement (M5S) and the Democratic Party (PD) was formed. While we have revised our forecasts to reflect the reduced political risk associated with the new government, we still …
The slowdown in Qatar’s economy over the past decade should come to an end in the coming quarters as the start of production at the Barzan gas project boosts growth in the hydrocarbon sector. But tight fiscal policy and a slowdown in credit growth are …
With job creation driven in part by self-employed workers, the recent resilience of the labour market appears to be less positive for occupier demand. What’s more, the weakness in economic activity and falling job vacancies suggest that office-based …
The impact of the trade war between the US and China on the UK economy has been small, even allowing for the indirect effects on investment and the financial markets. Admittedly, trade tensions will probably intensify further from here. Even so, the …
The trade war has probably lowered Chinese demand for Australian exports by curbing investment in factories and warehouses. But the trade tensions have contributed to the weakening of the Australian dollar, which is boosting net trade. While a further …
The latest NFIB and JOLT surveys point to a drop in business equipment investment over the rest of the year and provide more evidence that labour market conditions are no longer tightening. The small fall in the NFIB index in August suggests that, in …
10th September 2019
When the Brexit process comes to a head in October the economy could shift onto a new trajectory. This Update sets out the key events that could affect which of our forecasts the economy follows. The first thing to point out is that there won’t be an …
Early-warning indicators suggest that Hong Kong’s banking system is primed for a crisis. And banks face multiple shocks from an economic recession, a housing market correction and capital outflows. But conservative lending standards and strong capital …
The usual seasonal uplift in demand should support the price of Pacific coal until end-2019. However, we expect average prices to fall in the years ahead owing in large part to weaker demand prospects . The price of Pacific coal has tumbled over the past …
We doubt that Central and Eastern European (CEE) currencies will be able to regain any of the ground they have lost against the euro over the next year or so. The Hungarian forint is likely to be the worst performing currency in the region, while the …
9th September 2019
The sharp fall in market interest rates over the past 12 months is starting to support the economy, with activity growth in rate-sensitive sectors like durables consumption and housing rebounding in recent months. With income growth slowing and the …
The 2020 budget presented by Mexico’s finance ministry at the weekend suggests that there will be a tilt towards providing modest stimulus to the struggling economy. But the big picture is that the government is continuing to pursue fiscal discipline, …
The change at the helm of the Saudi energy ministry raises the chances that the current OPEC+ output deal is extended beyond its current expiry date of March next year, which would probably require the Kingdom to keep its oil output below its quota. The …
China’s commodity imports ticked up in August, in part due to strong infrastructure spending. But we expect them to weaken in the months ahead as temporary factors fade and construction activity tails off . China’s export growth turned negative in August, …
The recent strong pace of house price gains is unlikely to last as income growth is set to remain subdued. We expect house prices to rise by around 5% next year and in 2021. A rebound in house prices is good news for vehicle and furniture sales, but …
Russian central bank governor, Elvira Nabiullina, used the post-meeting press conference to hint at a possible further rate cut by year-end, supporting our view that the easing cycle has further to run. For our part, we think slow growth and weak …
6th September 2019
The PBOC will release a portion of the reserves commercial banks’ hold at the central bank. While this will pull down interbank rates in the short run, the PBOC will need to cut its policy rate to make the lower interbank rates stick. But even if policy …
After spending much of the last year as an outlier, IHS Markit has fixed the Halifax index. In line with the other main measures, the index is now recording sluggish house price growth. And with the usual month-on-month volatility now greatly reduced, the …
