Filtered by Topic: Monetary Policy Use setting Monetary Policy
The brief turmoil in global financial markets following the release of weaker-than-expected US payrolls data and a resurgence of concerns about a hard landing there has been the main event of the past week. We think three points are worth making about the …
9th August 2024
US recession fears grip global markets ... The turmoil in global financial markets late last week and early this week has been followed by some stabilisation over the past few days, but the situation remains fluid and you can find all our analysis on the …
Inflation in Norway has continued to fall more quickly than policymakers expected. But with the krone coming under renewed pressure recently, we think they will maintain a hawkish tone next week. At the last meeting, in June, Norges Bank left its policy …
Easing cycle continues despite peso weakness Mexico’s central bank opted to reduce its policy rate by 25bp, to 10.75%, at today’s meeting and the statement generally retained the moderately dovish tone from the last one. We think further rate cuts are …
8th August 2024
Recent safe haven flows into the franc may have prompted limited FX interventions by the SNB. But we think that the policy rate will remain its main policy tool, even for dampening the franc’s strength. Indeed, we now expect the SNB to cut its policy rate …
US recession risks yet to derail export outlook The recent batch of weaker-than-expected US data rattled global markets this week. But it hasn’t significantly altered China’s economic outlook. Admittedly, the risk of a US recession, which would hurt …
Even as most EM central banks outside of Asia started lowering interest rates a year ago, those within the region have kept their powder dry. That could be about to change. As growth slows, inflation returns to targets and currencies recover, the …
Rise in inflation leaves Banxico decision on a knife edge The rise in Mexico’s headline inflation rate, to 5.6% y/y in July, alongside the weakness in the peso means that Banxico’s interest rate decision later today will be a very close call between a cut …
No rush to loosen policy Although the Reserve Bank of Australia left rates on hold at its meeting this Tuesday, its messaging was unequivocally hawkish. In her post-meeting press conference Governor Michele Bullock stated that the Board had seriously …
This report has been updated with additional analysis and a chart and table of key figures. Inflation falls despite subsidy cuts Egypt’s headline inflation slowed from 27.5% y/y in June to 25.7% y/y in July, its lowest rate since December 2022. And this …
The recent market turmoil didn’t move the needle for the MPC today: it continued to strike a hawkish tone as the majority of members voted to keep the repo rate unchanged at 6.50%. But with inflation set to fall back towards the RBI’s 4% target over the …
Financial stress should be short-lived The Topix and the yen have reversed some of the large moves seen earlier this week, but BoJ Deputy Governor Uchida still signalled that those developments have reduced the chances of further policy tightening in a …
RBI could ease policy by year-end The recent market turmoil didn’t move the needle for the MPC today: it continued to strike a hawkish tone as the majority of members voted to keep the repo rate unchanged at 6.50%. But with inflation set to fall back …
At its last policy meeting, the Bank of England still sounded a long way from being assured that inflation and wage growth will continue to ease. As a result, we doubt the recent moves in global financial markets will be enough to persuade the Bank to cut …
7th August 2024
We suspect that the boost to euro-zone economic growth from interest rate cuts over the next year or two will be quite small. The ECB is likely to lower its policy rates only gradually and leave them well above pre-Covid levels. So borrowing costs in the …
Easing cycle continues, but space for further cuts is narrow Romania’s central bank (NBR) delivered another 25bp cut to its policy rate today, to 6.50%, but in spite of the slightly more dovish accompanying statement, we think that the space for further …
We are in the minority of forecasters who expect the Reserve Bank of New Zealand to hand down a 25bp rate cut at its meeting next week. Moreover, with excess capacity in the economy rising rapidly, we think the Bank will embark on a more aggressive easing …
Although the UK has clearly been caught up in the recent turmoil in global financial markets, we do not think a double-dip recession is on the cards. Nonetheless, the disorderly market reaction, if sustained, raises the downside risks to our GDP forecast …
6th August 2024
The minutes to last week’s central bank meeting in Brazil raised the possibility that policymakers will respond to the worsening inflation outlook by hiking interest rates. And despite the sharp shift down in US interest rate expectations since that …
25bp cut likely to be followed by more easing The Central Bank of Kenya delivered a 25bp cut to its policy rate, to 12.75%, at its meeting today as it embarked on long-trailed easing cycle and, with inflation set to fall further from here, additional cuts …
Although the RBA left rates on hold today, it poured cold water on market expectations that it will loosen policy later this year. With the economy still running above its speed limit, we continue to believe that rate cuts won’t be on the agenda until Q2 …
With RBA retaining its tightening bias, rate cuts will have to wait Although the RBA continued to strike a cautious tone when it left rates on hold today, we still believe that the Bank’s next move will be down. That said, contrary to market pricing, we …
Japan’s government has intervened in the FX markets to weaken the yen far more often than to strengthen it. But FX interventions have become very rare over the past two decades and our sense is that the government is welcoming a stronger exchange rate in …
Fears of a US recession have rattled EM equity markets at a time when EM economies themselves are showing more pronounced signs of weakness. Most EM currencies have held up well, suggesting a dovish tilt may come from EM central banks – particularly those …
5th August 2024
Fears about US recession are fuelling volatility in financial markets, sending stock prices and bond yields sharply lower. But how justified are these fears? And do moves in asset prices point to a fundamental shift or a temporary blip in the market …
Labour market cracks raise risk of hard landing Things went from bad to worse after the Fed’s policy announcement mid-week, with the data on Thursday revealing a further fall in the ISM manufacturing index and a rise in initial jobless claims to a near …
2nd August 2024
With that grim July payrolls report triggering fresh selling in US stocks and bond buying on Friday, Group Chief Economist Neil Shearing and Deputy Chief Markets Economist Jonas Goltermann join David Wilder to talk about whether there's anything to …
This week was a good example of a “hawkish cut” from the Bank of England. The cut bit; the first 25 basis point (bp) fall in interest rates since March 2020. The hawkish bit; the Bank stated very clearly that it doesn’t expect to cut rates too much or too …
China’s economy has slowed recently but we think it will regain some momentum during the second half of the year. Consumers remain cautious and the housing market continues to weaken. But exports look set to stay strong for a while longer. And the …
We've been here before We wouldn’t take Tuesday’s pledge from the Politburo to tilt stimulus towards consumption at face value. The leadership called for policies to lift incomes and enhance the capacity and willingness of low- and middle-income groups to …
This week saw the publication of a raft of activity and inflation data for the euro-zone. There are two key takeaways in our view. First, the economic recovery remains fragile. Admittedly, GDP expanded by a solid 0.3% q/q in Q2, the same pace as in Q1. …
Given that we broadly share investors' view about how far DM central banks will ease monetary policy this year and next, we forecast government bond yields in most developed markets to end 2024 close to their current levels. Meanwhile, we think investors …
Bond restrictions highlight investor wariness The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) this week announced restrictions on foreign investment on all newly-issued 14-year and 30-year local-currency sovereign bonds. Effective immediately, foreigners will now only be …
Near-term outlook for consumption brightening As we had anticipated , the Bank of Japan’s decision to halve its JGB purchases over the next couple of years didn’t deter it from also raising interest rates further at this week’s meeting . Press reports …
RBA will remain data dependent The main event this week was the publication of Australian CPI data , which showed that underlying inflation in Q2 was softer than most had anticipated. To be clear, trimmed mean inflation was only 0.1%-pt lower than the …
Bond yields have fallen in the US and the UK after the Fed signalled an imminent rate cut and the Bank of England delivered one. But only in the UK do we see more room down for yields. US Treasury yields have fallen further following the Fed meeting …
1st August 2024
The Bank of England kick-started a loosening cycle today by cutting interest rates from 5.25% to 5.00%, but the accompanying guidance and forecasts suggest it will proceed cautiously. Accordingly, we suspect the Bank will keep rates on hold in September …
CNB slows easing cycle, but rates will still fall further than many expect Czech National Bank (CNB) Governor Michl sounded fairly cautious in his guidance about the future course of the easing cycle in the post-meeting press conference. But the …
Rates cut to 5.00%, but BoE in no rush to cut again The Bank of England kick-started a loosening cycle today, cutting interest rates from 5.25% to 5.00%, but the accompanying guidance and forecasts suggest it will proceed cautiously. Accordingly, we now …
Upside inflation surprise in June has dashed hopes of rate cut next week But space for December rate cut will open as inflation heads back down to 4% We think upcoming loosening cycle will be more aggressive than consensus expects The upside inflation …
PMIs point to softer demand in Russia and Turkey The manufacturing PMIs for July suggest that industrial sectors lost a bit of momentum in Turkey and Russia at the start of Q3, although demand conditions still appear very strong in Russia. In both …
Copom on hold, rate cuts off the cards for the rest of 2024 Rising inflation, a worsening fiscal position and a slump in the real prompted Brazil’s central bank to leave the Selic rate at 10.50% today and strike a more hawkish tone in the accompanying …
31st July 2024
Fed lays the groundwork for September rate cut There was no surprise rate cut from the Fed today, with the fed funds target range left unchanged at between 5.25% and 5.50%, but the changes in the accompanying statement – which included a shift from a …
Fed lays groundwork for September rate cut There was no surprise rate cut from the Fed today, with the fed funds target range left unchanged at between 5.25% and 5.50%, but the changes in the accompanying statement – which included a shift from a …
Africa Chart Pack (Jul. 2024) …
We have revised down our forecasts for government bond spreads in Spain and Portugal, but we continue to think that those in France, as well as in Italy and Belgium, are more likely to rise than fall. The dust has now settled in bond markets after the …
The fading drag from load-shedding was widely expected to allow a recovery in South Africa’s economy this year, but this hasn’t materialised. We think that weak demand is to blame, itself a symptom of tight fiscal and monetary policy and a challenging …
We still think that a fading in services inflation and below-target CPI inflation will prompt the Bank of England to cut interest rates from 5.25% now to 3.00% by the end of 2025, rather than to 4.00% as investors anticipate. That explains why we think …
The Bank of Japan outlined a plan for reducing its bond purchases and hiked its policy rate by 20bp today. We think it will follow up with another 20bp hike at its October meeting . Only one-third of analysts polled by Reuters, ourselves included, had …
We think the yen’s rally will continue, but suspect that won’t stop the Australian and New Zealand dollars – alleged victims of the carry trade’s unwind – from making some ground over the next year or two. Australia’s Q2 inflation data took a bit of a …
