Filtered by Region: Europe Use setting Europe
CBR now set for extended pause Russia’s central bank kept its main policy rate unchanged at 7.50% today as it emphasised that inflation risks have become slightly more skewed to the upside. This reinforces our view that the easing cycle is unlikely to …
16th December 2022
Improvement, but surveys still point to recession The flash PMIs for December provide more evidence that businesses in some parts of the euro-zone have become a bit less gloomy about their current situation. But they still point to a contraction in the …
Improvement, but surveys still point to recession The flash PMIs for December provide more evidence that businesses in some parts of the euro-zone have become a bit less gloomy about their current situation – but they still point to a combination of …
No early Christmas cheer for retailers The 0.4% m/m fall (consensus +0.3%) in retail sales volumes in November resumes the downward trend seen across most of the year. Sales volumes in November were 4.5% lower than at the start of the year. And despite …
Fed strikes back but activity data suggests it will cut rates before the end of next year Markets take fright at ECB’s hawkish comments and the prospect of quantitative tightening Despite a dovish tone, the BoE may yet hike rates much further Key …
15th December 2022
Today’s 50bp rate hike came alongside hawkish comments which are consistent with our view that the deposit rate will peak at 3%, significantly higher than the consensus forecast and a touch above what was priced into the market. The press release also …
The Bank of England followed the Fed by slowing the pace of interest rate hikes from 75 basis points (bps) in November to 50bps hike today as widely expected, which took rates from 3.00% to 3.50%. But unlike the hawkish Fed, the Bank sounded a touch …
This is part of a series of reports outlining our key macro and market calls for 2023. Click here to view the full series. Property markets rebounded strongly after 2020, in part boosted by favourable structural shifts brought on by the pandemic. But …
More ECB rate hikes to come Today’s 50bp rate hike came alongside hawkish comments which are consistent with our view that the deposit rate will peak at 3%, significantly higher than the consensus forecast and a touch above what was priced into the …
Easing off the brakes, but hikes may not halt until rates hit 4.50% The Bank of England followed the Fed by slowing the pace of interest rate hikes from 75bps in November to a 50bps hike today as widely expected, which took rates from 3.00% to 3.50%. But …
This is part of a series of reports outlining our key macro and market calls for 2023. Click here to view the full series. Our latest EM Outlook can be found here . EMs will experience one of the broadest slowdowns in GDP growth in 2023 since the 1990s. …
Office rental growth in London and RoUK was similar in the third quarter. But as the recession takes hold London firms will have a greater incentive, and opportunity, to make savings from the shift to working from home. That will cut demand just as a …
14th December 2022
Click here to read the full report. Overview – Property yields have risen on the back of higher interest rates and have started to drag materially on values. We expect this to continue in 2023, as valuations are still highly stretched. Given downgrades to …
October’s fall in output sets the tone for a bleak Q4 Industrial production in the euro-zone declined by 2.0% m/m in October with all the largest economies showing a reduction in output. While output held up better than we had expected in Q3, this is …
The Bank of England can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that CPI inflation has peaked. But with activity holding up and wage growth still strengthening, the 2.0% inflation target is still a long way from being hit. As such, the Bank will still probably …
Inflation passed its peak, slower rate hikes more likely The fall in CPI inflation, from 11.1% in October to 10.7% in November (consensus 10.9%, BoE 10.9%, CE 11.1%,), means that inflation has peaked and the fall in core inflation from 6.5% to 6.3% will …
While today’s agreement on the EU’s “Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism” leaves vital questions unanswered, it is a step towards the valid goal of making users pay for the emissions that they consume – wherever such emissions are produced. This Update …
13th December 2022
Q3 likely to mark a peak for lending volumes The detailed mortgage lending data for Q3 show that demand was resilient to rising mortgage rates at first. Loan-to-income ratios crept up despite rising financing costs. But with interest rates on new …
Recession still likely, despite improvement in sentiment The further recovery in the ZEW in December confirms that sentiment in Germany has improved a bit, but it remains at a very low level and we still think Germany is now already in a recession. The …
Accelerating wage growth won’t make the Bank of England’s task easier Coming on the back of yesterday’s larger-than-expected rise in GDP in October, today’s news that the labour market is loosening only gradually and wage growth continues to accelerate …
We think tightness in the UK labour market eased in October (07.00 GMT) Germany’s ZEW survey may show an improvement in investor sentiment (10.00 GMT) US consumer price inflation probably fell back further in November (13.30 GMT) Key Market Themes With …
12th December 2022
October’s rebound won’t prevent contraction in GDP in Q4 The 0.5% m/m rise in GDP in October was mostly due to the rebound after September’s extra bank holiday. Even so, the surprisingly strong rise could tilt the Bank of England towards another bumper …
Rebound in October likely to be a blip The larger-than-expected 0.5% m/m rise in GDP in October was mostly due to the rebound after September’s extra bank holiday. But it could tilt the Bank of England towards delivering another bumper 75bps interest rate …
Overview – Higher interest rates have already resulted in a sharp property repricing in 2022. And with valuations still highly stretched and rental prospects weaker given the imminent recession, we think values will fall further next year. However, as …
9th December 2022
Hungary’s fuel crisis reaches breaking point Hungary’s government was forced to abandon its cap on petrol and diesel prices earlier this week as fuel shortages intensified across the country. The cap had been introduced at the end of last year and has …
If you haven’t started your Christmas shopping, you may not be alone. Both the CBI Distributive Trades Survey and the CHAPS spending data point to a fall in retail sales volumes in November. The BRC/KPMG Retail Sales Monitor, which has a somewhat …
Wage growth peaking? Policymakers at the ECB will have taken some heart from the latest wage data published by Indeed. The data track pay offered in job adverts and they have shown a rapid acceleration over the past 18 months or so. But at least on …
The rise in net lending to real estate over the past couple of months may reflect some investors looking to buy commercial property assets at discounted prices. But a repeat of the mid-2000s, when lending held up even as commercial values started to fall, …
The Bank is most likely to slow the pace of rate hikes to 50bp next week. But we forecast a further 100bp of hikes next year to a peak deposit rate of 3%. The key principles guiding QT will be that it is steady and slow. There is a case for the ECB to …
8th December 2022
Shift down from 75bps hike in November to 50bps hike in December MPC starting to think more about the level of rates rather than the pace of rate hikes We think rates will rise to a peak of 4.50%, before being cut sharply in 2024 A shift from the 75 …
Survey shows prices and activity continuing to fall in November The RICS survey confirmed that there were widespread house price falls in November. Surveyors expect a further drop in prices and slowdown in transactions ahead, in line with our forecasts. …
Slowing growth keeps the NBP on hold Poland’s central bank (NBP) stuck to its script today as it left interest rates on hold at 6.75% for the third consecutive meeting. With inflation nearing a peak and the economy slowing, we think the tightening cycle …
7th December 2022
Overview – 2023 will be a tough year for the economy as the effects of the previous rises in inflation and previous hikes in interest rates (as well as a future rise from 3.00% now to a peak of 4.50% in early 2023) are felt. Our view that inflation and …
German industrial output resilient but still set for contraction German industrial production once again held up better than expected in October. But this resilience was driven partly by a recovery in construction which tends to be volatile. We still …
Sharp drop confirms that house price correction has begun The largest monthly fall in the Halifax house price index since October 2008 confirms that the house price correction that we forecast has begun. While mortgage rates have fallen back somewhat in …
German industrial output resilient but still set for contraction German industrial production once again held up better than expected in October. But this resilience was driven partly by a recovery in construction which tends to be volatile. We expect …
Headline index starts to fall as recession cuts demand As expected, the headline CIPS construction index retreated in November as falling demand outweighed the benefit of easing prices and an increase in the availability of contractors. As the recession …
6th December 2022
We are nudging up our euro-zone GDP forecast slightly to reflect the small improvement in the economic data in recent months and an easing of the energy crisis. Nonetheless, we still think euro-zone GDP will contract much more than the consensus …
The last big central bank decisions of 2022 resulted in another batch of hefty rate hikes – if smaller than recent – but also provided important signals about the direction of policymaking in the coming year. Group Chief Economist Neil Shearing and …
5th December 2022
Households cutting back amid high inflation The sharp drop in euro-zone retail spending in October is consistent with our view that – notwithstanding the slight uptick in some business surveys recently – the economy is entering recession. With …
This week’s data releases showed that higher interest rates are starting to influence the economy. This means that at some point the Bank of England will have to start to think more about the appropriate level of interest rates rather than the pace of …
2nd December 2022
There is a good chance that CPI inflation has peaked or will peak before the end of the year. There are even some signs that inflation is becoming less persistent. This may contribute to the Bank of England slowing the pace of rate hikes from 75 basis …
Off the peak? The big event this week was the publication of flash inflation data which showed that, after rising for seventeen months in succession, headline inflation fell from 10.6% in October to 10.0% in November. (See here .) This was lower than we …
Following the Nationwide data showing a larger-than-expected fall in house prices in November, we hosted an online Drop-In on 1 st December to discuss how far prices could fall and what the downturn could mean for transactions and construction. This …
Hopes may be rising that price pressures may finally be easing, but investors risk missing the fact that not all inflation cycles are alike. We think core inflation in the US will fall far faster than it will in the euro-zone, and this will have big …
1st December 2022
Labour market to soften from here, but remain tight The record-low euro-zone unemployment rate of 6.5% in October is likely to be as good as it gets for the region’s labour market. But the rise in unemployment from here will probably be small. The …
Sharp drop in prices as market adjusts to higher mortgage rates The 1.4% m/m drop in house prices in November was far larger than anyone expected, raising the risk that prices fall more rapidly and further in response to high mortgage rates than we …
Further downgrades as yields rise and rental growth falls back The latest IPF Consensus Survey showed further significant downgrades for total returns in 2022 and 2023, as higher interest rates have boosted yields and a looming recession cuts rental …
30th November 2022