Filtered by Topic: Monetary Policy Use setting Monetary Policy
Overview - The Omicron surge will cause a renewed fall in consumer spending this quarter. But we still expect GDP to return to its pre-virus path in the second half of the year. And while Omicron and any subsequent outbreaks may exacerbate supply …
12th January 2022
In his Senate re-nomination hearing today, Fed Chair Jerome Powell echoed the increasingly hawkish rhetoric coming from other officials. He admitted that "supply side constraints have been very consistent and very durable" and that the Fed was "not seeing …
11th January 2022
We doubt that “fiscal dominance” – worries about the impact of higher interest rates on debt sustainability – would stop the ECB from raising interest rates. But it might encourage the Bank to backstop the bond market even after raising rates by …
Euro-zone inflation reached 5.0% in December, which is likely to be the peak. Unless oil and gas prices surge again in 2022, which seems unlikely, energy inflation will plummet – we forecast the contribution of energy to headline inflation to drop from …
We think that GDP growth in Australia will surprise to the upside. But with wage growth only approaching the 3% watermark the RBA would like to see by year-end, we expect the Bank to keep rates on hold. By contrast, we expect the RBNZ to hike interest …
We think GDP growth will come in below expectations this year. Even so, inflation will ultimately settle at a higher level than is currently appreciated and this feeds into our hawkish interest rate forecasts. We expect currencies to struggle in an …
10th January 2022
We think that Latin American GDP growth will slow by more than most expect in 2022, while inflation will also drop more a bit more quickly than the consensus anticipates. This feeds into our relatively dovish monetary policy views across the region. …
Asia will be – contrary to consensus expectations for widespread hikes – the only EM region in which the median central bank isn’t tightening this year. 2021 was a year of hits and misses in terms of our forecasts . We correctly forecast that most central …
Omicron taking hold in Latin America New virus cases have jumped almost five-fold in Latin America over the past two weeks as the contagious Omicron variant is taking hold, but we suspect that the economic fallout will be limited. Caseloads are …
7th January 2022
Omicron tsunami shows few signs of peaking The surge in Omicron infections has quickly developed into a full-blown tsunami, with the seven-day national average now close to 600,000 – three times higher than the previous peak last winter. (See Chart 1.) …
NBP defiant in the face of rising wage growth Poland’s central bank continued its tightening cycle this week, but recent comments from policymakers have made us more concerned that it is failing to appreciate the extent, persistence and possible …
Next stop, rate cut in Denmark? We learnt this week that Denmark’s Nationalbank intervened heavily in the FX market in December to counter upward pressure on the krone. The sale of DKK 47 billion in the month was the biggest intervention in absolute terms …
While we don’t think the stock market’s falls this week mark the start of a sustained rout, we do expect Fed tightening to curb the upside for mid- and large-cap US equities over the next couple of years. And tighter monetary policy might also weigh a bit …
Philippines won’t start tightening this year Falling inflation and an increasingly uncertain economic outlook add weight to our non-consensus view that the central bank in the Philippines (BSP) will not start tightening in 2022. Figures released earlier …
Omicron probably won’t trigger lockdown In recent weeks new Covid-19 cases have been exploding. More people have tested positive in the past two weeks than in the rest of the pandemic combined. While a lower share of Omicron patients suffer severe …
We expect GDP to grow strongly once the current restrictions are eased, but we are sceptical that either GDP growth or inflation will be as high this year as widely anticipated. This leads us to think the Bank of Canada will hike interest rates by 75 bp …
6th January 2022
As hinted at in the December FOMC minutes, we expect the Fed will begin shrinking its balance sheet later in 2022. They would start by allowing maturing assets to run off, but if longer-term bond yields were to remain unusually low, we expect officials …
We think that GDP growth in Switzerland and the Nordics will be slower than most anticipate this year, and the boosts to inflation from energy prices will subside over the year. But while the SNB will keep interest rates on hold at a record low, …
Our new forecasts for 2022 envisage CPI inflation rising further than most expect to a peak of 7% and the Bank of England raising interest rates quicker, from 0.25% now to 1.25% by the end of the year. COVID-19 has the capacity to spring more surprises. …
We think euro-zone GDP growth will be lower than most anticipate this year, at around 3.5%, while inflation will come down towards 2% by year-end allowing the ECB to leave interest rates unchanged and continue net asset purchases. The big risk is that …
5th January 2022
As long as recurrent large waves of COVID are avoided, we think that Indian GDP growth will accelerate this year. At the same time, inflation is likely to rise more sharply than generally expected. The result is that policy rates will be hiked by more …
We expect GDP to return to its pre-virus path in the second half of the year as services spending finally returns to near-normal. However, the risks to that forecast remain tilted to the downside as consumers may remain cautious for longer. Meanwhile, we …
The National Bank of Poland (NBP) raised its policy rate by another 50bp, to 2.25% today and we expect at least another 75bp of tightening, to 3.00%, in the next few months. But with energy bills set to surge and wage pressures strengthening, the risks …
4th January 2022
The economy gained momentum at the start of the fourth quarter and we have revised up our forecast for fourth-quarter GDP growth to 5.5% annualised, from 4.0%. Given the rapidly deteriorating coronavirus situation, however, we have revised down our …
23rd December 2021
The Omicron has lifted new virus cases to a record high, though hospitalisations remain low. (See Chart 1.) We estimate that there are around 2000 hospital beds available for Covid-19 patients in New South Wales, where cases are rising most rapidly, of …
The Czech National Bank (CNB) hiked rates by 100bp (to 3.75%) today and Governor Rusnok struck an incredibly hawkish tone after the meeting. The tightening cycle clearly has further to run and we now think the CNB will bring interest rates to 4.50% by …
22nd December 2021
While many central banks have continued to tighten monetary policy over the past month, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has gone in the opposite direction. We think the easing cycle in China has further to run, and that this will contribute to a further …
Recoveries across Latin America have lost momentum in Q4 even though, unlike in other regions such as Europe, new COVID-19 cases generally remain low and containment measures are still light-touch at this stage. The situation could get worse if the …
Q4 is shaping up to be strong in line with our forecast. Mobility data point to another sizeable rebound in consumer spending, and strong export data and optimistic firm forecasts suggest that industrial production has bounced back sharply. (See Chart 1). …
Most countries in Emerging Asia have now recorded cases of Omicron, and the experience from elsewhere in the world suggests that it is only a matter of time before there is widespread community transmission of the new variant. Many places have already …
The People’s Bank purchased nearly $6bn in foreign exchange last month, by our estimate. That’s not much in the context of China’s cross-border trade and investment flows. But it was the biggest purchase in six years. Then, earlier this month, while …
The Bank of Thailand (BoT) left interest rates on hold today at 0.5% and hinted in its statement that it was in little rush to tighten monetary policy. The setback to the tourism sector caused by the spread of Omicron means rates are likely to remain at …
Most central banks will raise interest rates next year. But in some cases, interest rates may not rise by as much as markets are anticipating. And the People’s Bank of China will cut interest rates further. With underlying inflation set to stay …
21st December 2021
The Omicron variant has supercharged the seasonal wave of virus cases sweeping parts of the US, adding to the existing headwinds to consumption growth over the coming months. (See Chart 1.) In contrast to governments in Europe, however, there are still …
The closure of many high-contact services in Quebec yesterday is likely to soon be matched by tighter coronavirus restrictions elsewhere. That said, if other provinces also allow stores and restaurants to stay open, then the hit to GDP will be smaller …
Inflation pressures have shown no signs of letting up across Emerging Europe, with headline inflation rates surging to multi-year highs in November. Producer price inflation has hit rates not seen in decades, food inflation continues to surge and strong …
20th December 2021
Upside inflation risks are building in India. Damage to crops from bad weather has caused spikes in vegetable prices recently. And base effects aren’t helpful: food inflation will accelerate in year-on-year terms over the next few months even if prices …
The People’s Bank has taken another modest easing step with a 5bp reduction to the One-Year Loan Prime Rate, although it kept the Five-Year rate on hold. We expect more easing to follow in the coming months. The one-year rate decreased from 3.85% to …
Following yesterday’s interest rate cut in Turkey, the lira has plunged again and is now faring worse than other Emerging Europe currencies have done during recent sudden stops. There are some signs of stress emerging in the banking sector. These aren’t …
17th December 2021
Our hits and misses from a volatile 2021 2021 was another whirlwind year for Latin America. The economic recovery has been bumpy, financial markets have underperformed, and Lionel Messi finally won the Copa América (sorry Brazil fans). In the final Weekly …
We think that policymakers in China could deliver a surprise rate cut (Mon.) But the Czech central bank is likely to continue with its tightening cycle (Wed.) We forecast a strong rise in headline US durable goods orders (Thu.) Key Market Themes While the …
Poland: overheating fears, but NBP stepping up Concerns that Poland’s economy is overheating will have only been reinforced by figures this week that showed a surge in nominal wage growth and a sharp widening of the current account deficit in October. But …
Market pricing suggests investors remain unconvinced that the now-hawkish Fed will hike interest rates as high as officials are projecting, either because inflation will drop back more quickly or because real economic growth will falter. In this case, we …
African officials keeping virus-fighting gloves off Three weeks after the detection of the Omicron variant in South Africa, the government is showing no signs of changing course from its approach of minimising virus-related restrictions even as COVID-19 …
Twelve months ago we said that 2021 would bring a “quicker and fuller” recovery, still-loose monetary policy and that the pandemic wouldn’t leave a large permanent dent in the economy and the public finances. (See here .) So we have managed to notch a …
The majority of this week’s multiple central bank decisions turned out to be a little more hawkish than most had anticipated, and the ECB was no exception. We commented on its decision here , but a couple of points are worth underlining. First, the ECB …
Fed rate hikes pose little threat to Asia With the start of US monetary tightening drawing near, questions have been asked about whether Asia’s central banks will respond with tightening of their own. Hong Kong and Singapore will: their exchange rate …
Russia’s central bank (CBR) stepped up the pace of its tightening cycle today with a 100bp interest rate hike, to 8.50%, and the hawkish communications reinforce the message that it will not hesitate to raise interest rates further. We now expect a 75bp …
Shifting sands at ECB change landscape for the SNB As expected, Thursday morning’s SNB announcement did not throw up any surprises, and the ability of Swiss policymakers to play a straight bat puts England’s openers to shame. However, the mildly hawkish …
We expect growth in almost every major economy to slow next year, with the US and China in particular falling some way short of current expectations. At the same time, while headline inflation will drop sharply, core inflation will remain higher than most …
