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Pause in May will give way to renewed falls ahead House prices were unchanged in May according to Halifax. Given that lack of momentum, the increase in mortgage rates following the bad inflation data published on the 24th of the month is set to tip house …
7th June 2023
Weak demand to weigh on industry The 0.3% m/m rise in industrial production in April was much smaller than the 2% rebound we had anticipated and weaker than the consensus forecast (+0.6%). Although the decline in March was revised down to 2.1% (previously …
NBP remains on pause The National Bank of Poland (NBP) left its main policy rate on hold again today, at 6.75%, and we think that rates will remain unchanged for at least the next few meetings. While we maintain our forecast that interest rates will be …
6th June 2023
Many of the factors that explain the UK’s chronically weak GDP growth since the pandemic, such as the shrinking of the UK’s workforce and low export growth, won’t disappear any time soon. This explains why we expect the UK economy’s underperformance to …
Early 2023 data revealed that the German industrial market has slowed considerably following the exuberance of a year ago. And looking ahead the outlook is not much brighter. We were already anticipating a significant moderation of rent growth this year …
5th June 2023
The recent decline in the number of job vacancies suggests that the upward pressure on wage growth from labour shortages is probably past its peak. But it’s still not clear that wage growth will slow fast enough to ease the Bank of England’s concerns over …
Inflation closing in on 2% Another sharp fall in headline and core inflation in May brought Switzerland within touching distance of the 0-2% range the SNB equates with price stability. But with recent comments from Chairman Thomas Jordan sounding quite …
Core inflation on its way down? Data published this week showed that euro-zone core inflation fell for the second consecutive month in May. (You can read our response to the data here or watch our Drop-in on the outlook for inflation, ECB policy and …
2nd June 2023
Optimism building about policy shift in Turkey All the attention in Turkey this week has been on whether President Erdogan will moderate his economic policies now that he has secured another five-year term. The latest signs of an improvement in …
After last week’s surprise rebound in core CPI inflation, this week’s data showed that higher interest rates are starting to percolate more meaningfully throughout the economy. That will have given the Bank of England more encouragement on its mission to …
We think Korea’s inflation fell in May, in line with weaker economic growth (00.00 BST) The US labour market probably loosened further last month (13.30 BST) Watch back today’s Drop-in on the outlook for EM equities on demand here Key Market Themes …
1st June 2023
Although the economy weathered the cost of living crisis much better than most expected, the full force of the cost of borrowing crunch has yet to be felt. And with it looking as though interest rates need to rise further to quash inflation, we think the …
In contrast to the deceleration across the rest of Europe, the rise in CEE yields in Q1 was bigger than in Q4, driven predominantly by the industrial sector. As the yield gap with the euro-zone is still narrow and valuations are more stretched that …
Growing evidence that UK price pressures are becoming increasingly domestically generated has driven up market interest rate expectations and at one point pushed the 10-year gilt yield up to 4.38% in late May, close to its peak seen after the …
Higher interest rates start to weigh more heavily on bank lending While the £7.3bn rebound in total UK bank deposits in April followed the £16.1bn decline in March and suggests that concerns over the stability of UK banks have faded, the more interesting …
The renewed decline in mortgage approvals in April will have dashed hopes that the jump in March marked the start of a recovery. Moreover, with mortgage rates now on their way back up, lending is likely to remain weak throughout the second half of the …
PMIs stabilise, but growth to remain tepid The manufacturing PMIs for May across Emerging Europe were either flat, or edged up slightly, providing further evidence that the worst of the regional downturn is probably now behind us. That said, the PMIs …
House prices flattened off in May after a rise in April. But with mortgage rates now on their way back up we suspect that the stabilisation in prices over the last couple of months will soon give way to renewed falls. The -0.1% m/m fall in house prices in …
Good news on inflation but core rate still high The fall in German headline inflation in May and signs that core price pressures eased echo the message from the inflation figures for France and Spain and supports the case for the ECB to limit further …
31st May 2023
Good news on inflation but core rate still high The fall in German headline inflation in May along with signs that core price pressures eased echoes the message from the inflation figures for France and Spain and supports the case for the ECB to limit …
There has been further evidence over the past month that resilient export growth, weak domestic demand and lower energy prices have helped to improve current account positions across Central and Eastern Europe this year. This has been particularly …
European property valuations continued to improve in Q1 on the back of further increases in property yields as well as falls in government bond yields. Nonetheless, all office and industrial markets aside from Istanbul remained overvalued. Indeed, we …
We think that the slump in demand for mortgages will more than offset the support from the high backlog of work and result in a sizeable contraction in euro-zone construction output in the coming quarters. Euro-zone construction output – which accounts …
30th May 2023
High net immigration helps explain why rental growth accelerated to its fastest pace on record last year. Immigration won’t be as high this year, adding to the reasons to think that rental growth has peaked. But strong pay growth, high mortgage rates and …
“Official” China PMIs may show a further slowdown in the reopening rebound (02.30 BST) We expect Thailand’s central bank to hike by 25bp, to 2.00% (08.00 BST) Canada’s rate of growth probably picked up in Q1 (13.30 BST) Key Market Themes A sense that …
The upward revision to our Bank Rate forecast suggests that mortgage rates will return to a similar peak as last autumn by the end of the year. That would undermine the recent pick-up in mortgage approvals and lead to renewed falls in house prices. Higher …
Overview – Higher-than-expected core inflation means interest rates are now set to be higher for longer and we still think the economy will enter a mild recession later this year. That’s not a great backdrop for commercial property and yields will need …
Economy stagnating, price pressures still high The larger-than-expected fall in the EC Economic Sentiment Indicator in May is consistent with our view that the euro-zone will continue to stagnate in the second quarter. Meanwhile, firms’ selling price …
Economic rebound likely to be short-lived The rebound in the Swiss economy in Q1 was due to robust domestic private sector demand, which more than offset a weakening in net trade. However, we expect the economy to slow over the remainder of the year as …
The labour markets in Norway and Sweden remain very tight, in line with conditions in the euro-zone. This is likely to keep services inflation high over the coming months and encourage the Norges Bank and Riksbank to raise rates further. The labour market …
26th May 2023
The big news this week was the downward revision to Germany’s estimate of Q1 GDP, which is now thought to have contracted by 0.3% q/q rather than stagnating. That pushed the economy into a technical recession as it had contracted by 0.5% in Q4 last year, …
Attention focusing on financial stability in Turkey With the second round vote of Turkey’s presidential election taking centre stage on Sunday, the day of reckoning for Turkey’s economy and financial markets may now just be around the corner. The …
The title of the UK Economic Outlook we published in March was “Recession needed to solve the inflation problem”. (See here .) The argument was that the drags from high inflation and a rise in interest rates to 4.50% would weaken activity and domestic …
Chief Europe Economist Andrew Kenningham and colleagues from the Europe team were online shortly after the May HICP release to talk through the latest inflation numbers and their implications for policy. During this 20-minute online session, Andrew and …
Improved outlook for retailers, but higher interest rates to restrain spending The 0.5% m/m rise in retail sales volumes in April suggests that higher interest rates are not yet taking a toll on spending. While the worst of the declines in retail sales …
Improving outlook for retailers, but higher interest rates to weigh on spending before long The 0.5% m/m rise in retail sales volumes in April was better than we expected (consensus +0.2%, CE -0.5%) and reversed some of the 1.2% m/m fall in March (revised …
We think UK retail sales contracted again last month (07.00 BST) US real consumption and durable goods orders probably picked up in April (13.30 BST) Meanwhile, we think US core PCE inflation rose by another 0.3% m/m (13.30 BST) Key Market Themes Higher …
25th May 2023
President Erdogan looks set to secure victory in the second round of Turkey’s presidential election on 28 th May. This Update sets out how we think this would play out in Turkey’s financial markets this year: in short, we think that measures of Turkey’s …
While it is a hot political potato, well targeted migration could be one part of the solution to the UK’s labour shortages problem. That could help inflation and interest rates be lower than otherwise. Net migration of 606,000 in the year to December 2022 …
The increase in mortgage rates has been the main determinant of the size of house price falls in developed market economies. Very tight supply in the US, and to a lesser extent the UK, has also supported prices in those markets. Employment, incomes, …
Hopes for CBRT rate hikes are evaporating Turkey’s central bank (CBRT) left its key policy rate on hold at 8.50% again today and, with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in pole position to be re-elected as Turkey’s President this Sunday, the probability of much-needed …
Germany in recession and outlook poor The downward revision to Germany’s Q1 GDP means that the country has fallen into a technical recession and that euro-zone GDP probably stagnated in Q1 rather than expanding by 0.1% q/q. We expect further economic …
History suggests that in the absence of a major financial shock, central banks usually leave interest rates at their peak for a year or more. That’s consistent with our view that the ECB is unlikely to start cutting interest rates until around the middle …
24th May 2023
We think Turkey’s central bank will keep its policy rate at 8.5%... (12.00 BST) … while policymakers in South Africa will deliver a 50bp rate hike, to 8.25% (14.00 BST) Clients can sign up here for tomorrow’s Drop-In on China’s economic outlook Key …
The most troubling aspect of April’s inflation data, released earlier today, was evidence that price pressures are becoming increasingly domestically generated. Accordingly, we now expect the Bank of England to raise interest rates further than we …
Opposing messages from Ifo and PMIs Contradictory messages from the Ifo – which was very weak in May – and the Composite PMI mean the performance of the German economy in Q2 is uncertain. But regardless of how well the economy held up this quarter, we …
In contrast to the rest of Europe, CEE yields not only rose, but increased more sharply in Q1 than the previous quarter. (See Chart 1.) Strong rental growth cushioned the blow to all-property capital values, but that did not prevent a partial reversal …
Opposing messages from Ifo and PMIs Contradictory messages from the Ifo – which was very weak in May – and the Composite PMI mean the performance of the German economy in Q2 is very uncertain . But regardless of how well the economy held up this quarter, …
