Bumper growth keeps door open for another rate hike The 1.4% q/q expansion in Brazil’s GDP was partly driven by a boom in the agricultural sector at the start of the year, which is likely to unwind. But it now looks like the economy is on course to expand …
30th May 2025
Tariffs: like Ross and Rachel Another week, another episode in what now feels like a long running drama series on President Trump’s tariff agenda. This week’s episode revealed fresh twists and turns as the US Court of International Trade (CIT) ruled that …
“One Big Beautiful Bill” (but not for clean energy) The passage of President Trump’s fiscal package – termed the “ One Big Beautiful Bill ” – through the House of Representatives is another step back for climate action in the US. Indeed, the bill would …
Most emerging market equities have held up surprisingly well of late, and in fact broadly outperformed global equities. But we think further outperformance is unlikely, especially for commodity exporters. Emerging market (EM) equities have been remarkably …
Economy grew at a rapid pace in Q1 GDP figures for Q1 2025 show that India’s economy grew at a robust pace at the start of the year and we think that growth may remain strong over the coming quarters as lower interest rates filter through into the economy …
New president will have his work cut out Barring a major surprise, Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party (DP) will be elected as Korea’s president when the country votes on Tuesday. Polls have narrowed in the past couple of weeks but still give him a …
We’re nudging up our forecasts for equities in most non-US developed markets, partly in response to our upwardly revised projections for the S&P 500 . But we still think they’ll lag equities in the US, if perhaps less significantly than they did earlier …
US tariffs on China likely to remain high Just a day after the US Court of International Trade ordered the removal of Trump’s Liberation Day and fentanyl-related tariffs, a federal appeals court put that ruling on hold. If the appeals court upholds the …
This report is part of our Future of Europe series. Read more analysis, explore the supporting data, and learn about our broader European coverage on the dedicated Future of Europe page. Europe is being buffeted by geopolitical and geoeconomic shifts but, …
Encouraging signs for the rebalancing process The slowdown in Turkish GDP growth, to 1.0% q/q, in Q1 and, more importantly, the fact that net trade is propping up growth provide positive signs that policymakers’ efforts to rebalance the economy and bring …
Firms upbeat about production outlook The latest activity data suggest that if anything, Japan is benefitting from trade tensions. To be sure, industrial production declined in April, but output of motor vehicles rose despite the 25% US tariff on auto …
We’re cautiously optimistic about the prospects for China’s stock market over the rest of the year, despite the clear headwinds it faces. It’s not surprising that China’s equity markets have been among the most volatile globally over the past day or so , …
RBNZ will loosen policy further still As virtually everyone had expected, the RBNZ cut its Official Cash Rate from 3.5% to 3.25% at its meeting this Wednesday. However, the revelation that one member voted to leave rates unchanged came as a surprise to …
Pullback in retail sales complicates matters for the RBA Despite the ongoing slump in consumer spending, we’re not convinced the RBA will cut rates as aggressively as markets are anticipating. The 0.1% m/m fall in retail sales was a much weaker outturn …
Japan’s economy shrugging off trade tensions If anything, the April activity data suggest that Japan’s economy is benefitting from trade tensions, which bodes well for our view that the Bank of Japan will hike rates again soon. Taking industrial …
Strong inflation opens up chance of July rate hike The Tokyo CPI showed a further broad-based acceleration in inflation in inflation, which suggests that the Bank of Japan may hike even earlier than our current forecast of October. Headline inflation held …
The latest data confirm that the world economy got off to a weak start this year. World trade has been one bright spot, as firms attempt to front-run tariffs. But business surveys have softened, and falling consumer confidence bodes ill for domestic …
29th May 2025
U-turns on benefit and welfare spending, increased pressure to ramp up defence spending and higher borrowing costs have left the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in a sticky position. If she wishes to avoid a political backlash and/or an adverse reaction in the …
The surplus in the EU carbon market dampened incentives to decarbonise in 2024, and the likelihood that the surplus is maintained until 2027 will keep a lid on carbon prices in the near term. Further ahead, a sharp contraction in the supply of carbon …
Note: The rerouting figures cited in this Update were adjusted on 16th September to reflect our updated estimates. Update: On 31st July, the Trump Administration announced that transshipped goods will be subject to a 40% tariff instead of the regular …
Emerging Markets Capital Flows Monitor (May 2025) …
Strong, but not unanimous support for June cut. Opinion is divided on what to do next. An early exit by Lagarde would not cause sudden shift in policy. A 25bp interest rate cut next week, taking the deposit rate to 2.0%, looks very likely. But divisions …
The South African Reserve bank resumed its interest rate easing cycle today, with a 25bp cut to 7.25%, and there was a marked dovish shift among the MPC, suggesting – as we have long thought – that the repo rate will decline further over this year. The …
We forecast a 150,000 gain in non-farm payrolls in May. Federal job losses may increase as severance periods end, but initial claims suggest any impact will once again be modest. We expect the unemployment rate to have held steady, while wage growth …
Despite a positive initial reaction in global stock markets to yesterday’s ruling by the US Court of International Trade (CIT), there is still plenty of uncertainty about future tariffs on US imports. So a really big boost to equities may not be on the …
Leading indicators suggest most of the recent weakness in housing demand and prices is due to the temporary influence of the change in stamp duty rather than any longer-lasting influence of the softer outlook for the UK economy. This lends support to our …
Yesterday’s US court ruling has added yet more uncertainty to the EU-US trade relationship and at face value has weakened President Trump’s position. But the risk of tariffs remains very real not least because sectoral tariffs, which are unaffected by the …
China’s turn to woo the Gulf The GCC-ASEAN-China summit underway this week contained a lot of platitudes, but it doesn’t change our view that the Gulf’s geopolitical alignment is tilting away from China and towards the US. For China, the summit was an …
In this Update, we answer several key questions about how the US Court of International Trade (CIT) tariff ruling might affect the US and other economies. The outlook may now rest on the decision of the Republican-stacked Supreme Court. The upside risks …
Falling inflation, downside risks to growth to prompt another cut to repo rate next week Another 25bp cut to 5.75% seems most likely Consensus has caught up to our long-held view of 100bps of cuts in this cycle With headline inflation now at a …
Although continued trade tensions have heightened economic uncertainty, they have had only a modest impact on consumer and business sentiment in the Antipodes. Indeed, we think the Australian economy will grow at around its trend rate over the coming …
There were few major changes in the May IPF Consensus Survey despite increased economic uncertainty. Total returns at the all-property level are forecast to be around 8.0% p.a. over 2025-29, which leaves our forecast of 7.5% p.a. toward the bottom end of …
We suspect most of the recent weakness in housing demand and prices is due to the temporary influence of the rise in stamp duty on 1st April rather than any longer-lasting influence from the softer outlook for the UK economy. This supports our view that a …
The recent substantial volatility in global sovereign bond markets hasn’t altered our view that in most cases 10-year government bond yields will end this year near, or below, their current levels. We also think corporate bonds will continue to do quite …
In response to US tariffs, Chinese exports that previously directly served US demand increasingly do so indirectly via third countries. This dashboard provides bottom-up estimates of indirect China-US trade based on the within-product group overlap …
The dovish tone adopted by the Bank of Korea today, alongside what we think will be continued weakness of the economy suggest that further interest rate cuts are likely in the coming months. The decision to lower the policy rate by 25bps to 2.50% – the …
Court ruling adds another layer of uncertainty on Trump’s tariffs The ruling by the three-judge panel of the Federal Court of International Trade blocking President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs will presumably be appealed by the administration all the way …
Further easing coming With the economy set to struggle and concerns about inflation unlikely to resurface anytime soon, we expect the Bank of Korea to remain in easing mode after today’s 25bp cut. The decision to lower the policy rate to 2.50% – the …
Officials worried that tariff inflation boost could become persistent The minutes of the Fed’s early-May policy meeting were, on balance, slightly hawkish. In particular, “almost all participants commented on the risk that inflation could prove to be more …
28th May 2025
Summary of Deliberations from April meeting struck a dovish note despite Bank’s pause Labour market is weakening while upside risks to inflation have eased Bank set to cut policy rate to 2.5% despite market pricing to the contrary We suspect the Bank …
Our China Activity Proxy suggests that the economy’s growth slowed in April. But, so far, US tariffs seem to have had a bigger impact on consumer sentiment than industrial activity, with rerouting and renminbi depreciation helping to offset the fall in …
This report is part of our Future of Europe series. Read more analysis, explore the supporting data, and learn about our broader European coverage on the dedicated Future of Europe page. The ECB’s forthcoming assessment of its 2021 strategy review won’t …
The early evidence suggests that EM exports have held up well, despite higher US tariffs. That’s partly because exporters have front-loaded shipments to the US or have avoided high tariffs via third countries. So long as this remains the case, we expect …
Debate around whether or not India’s economy has surpassed Japan’s in size is raging, but the big picture is that India was always going to overtake Japan – and also Germany – given its positive demographics and scope for continued productivity gains. So …
Muted PPI suggests core PCE inflation still on downward trend The March PPI data show the folly of relying too much on the CPI data. Our calculations suggest that, based on the combined inputs from PPI and CPI, core PCE prices increased by a more muted …
Although the global tariff environment now appears to be heading towards a far more benign environment than had appeared likely a month or so ago, it still represents a demand shock that will prove a headwind to commodity demand and prices. Against an …
Africa Chart Pack (May. 2025) …
The pandemic is firmly in our collective rear-view mirrors, but five years on, its effects continue to drive real estate performance differentials. We expect it to remain integral to driving winners and losers over the next five years and into the 2030s. …
The latest low-profile data suggest that Saudi Arabia’s non-oil economy has started to lose momentum. And with the shift to a more aggressive oil output policy causing oil prices to fall, further fiscal consolidation is in the pipeline, which will weigh …
