Global recession seals real estate downturn In line with changes in our global economic view, we have made significant downgrades to our commercial real estate forecasts for the next couple of years. As a result, we now expect a much bigger drop in property values next year that will cause annual returns to be negative in all our key markets. In view of the wider interest, we are also sending this UK Commercial Property Update to clients of our US and Europe Commercial Property Services. 8th November 2022
Fracturing and financial flows The trend towards ever more “financial globalisation” has already decelerated and will probably slow further as the global economy fractures and policymakers favour resilience over efficiency. While a disorderly rupture of financial relations remains unlikely, links between the US and China will weaken. 6th October 2022
Housing downturns starting to take toll on economies Housing downturns are well underway in many countries and house prices and activity generally have further to fall. Construction activity is already suffering as a result. While it is hard to detect any major adverse effect on household spending, this probably just reflects time lags. We continue to think that weak housing markets will contribute to the recessions that we expect in most major DMs this year. Drop-Ins: Property markets in 2023: We’re holding two special 30-minute briefings on the 2023 housing and commercial property outlooks on Tuesday, 17th January, covering first the UK and Europe and then the US. Click below to register for either or both sessions: UK/Europe outlook (09:00 GMT/17:00 SGT) US outlook (11:00 EST/16:00 GMT) 16th January 2023
A year of disinflation Inflation is finally falling and we envisage further sharp declines in almost all economies during 2023. In most cases, this disinflation will be more dramatic than either the consensus of economists or central banks predict. A large part of the fall will be down to energy and food effects and the key question is whether underlying inflation will also decelerate. But with economies sliding into recession and unemployment likely to rise, we suspect that core price pressures will ease, allowing central banks to end or even start to reverse their policy tightening. Note: We’ll be answering your inflation questions and discussing the key takeaways from this report in a special Drop-In on Thursday, 5th January at 10:00 EST/15:00 GMT. Register here. 3rd January 2023
What lower gas prices mean for the euro-zone We have revised our European wholesale gas price forecast down and, as a result, now expect euro-zone inflation to fall more rapidly than we had previously anticipated. In turn, this means that real incomes and economic activity might be slightly stronger, though the impact will probably be quite small. We still think that the ECB will raise its deposit rate to a peak of 3% this year, but lower gas prices increase the chance that the Bank starts loosening monetary policy a bit sooner than we had expected. Drop-Ins – The World In 2023 (10-11 January): Will 2023 be another rollercoaster year for economies and markets? Join our senior economists for these special briefings on 10th and 11th January to find out what to expect in the coming 12 months. Register now. 5th January 2023
Broad-based decline in core inflation coming soon Despite the unanticipated strength in recent months, there are still good reasons to expect core inflation to fall markedly next year. That moderation will not require a deep recession and/or significant rise in the unemployment rate, although we do expect weak demand and easing labour market conditions to play a supporting role. Most of the coming decline in core inflation is already “baked into the cake” – private sector rent measures and other housing indicators point to a significant drop back in shelter cost inflation, while CPI medical care services will fall as the ridiculous spike in health insurance prices is reversed. The stronger dollar, easing supply shortages and collapse in transportation costs all but guarantee a slump in core goods inflation. We expect core CPI inflation to be below 2.5% by end-2023 and core PCE inflation to be around the 2% target. Both measures should fall below 2% in 2024. 2nd November 2022
China commodity imports set to rebound this year Commodity imports generally rose in December, but fell in 2022 as a whole. In a possible sign of optimism around reopening, soybean imports skyrocketed. China’s unexpectedly swift switch to living with COVID should see commodity imports, particularly crude oil, recover this year. 13th January 2023
A lower gas price forecast, but prices to stay high European natural gas prices have halved over the past month as usage stayed low and LNG imports hit record highs. Barring dramatically colder weather, EU gas storage looks set to be in a more comfortable position than we had expected. As a result, we have revised down our end-2023 gas price forecast. Drop-Ins – The World In 2023 (10-11 January): Will 2023 be another rollercoaster year for economies and markets? Join our senior economists for these special briefings on 10th and 11th January to find out what to expect in the coming 12 months. Register now. 6th January 2023
The World in 2023: Property prices to plunge Property markets rebounded strongly after 2020, in part boosted by favourable structural shifts brought on by the pandemic. But they have hit the buffers in recent months. And fortunes are likely to deteriorate further next year, which we expect to be the worst for real estate prices since the end of the GFC. In view of the wider interest we are also sending this UK Commercial Property Update to clients of other Property Services. 15th December 2022
Investment set for weak H1 before picking up in late-2023 We expect the slowdown in investment activity in the second half of 2022 to persist into the first half of 2023. But we think transactions will begin to recover later this year once interest rates have topped out and much of the valuation adjustment has come through. 20th January 2023
Euro-zone Chart Book Tighter monetary policy starting to bite The latest business surveys suggest that the euro-zone will stagnate or suffer only a mild recession, but the money and credit data paint a much gloomier picture. Net lending was negative in December... 7th February 2023 · 10 mins read
Japan Data Response Japan Labour Cash Earnings (Dec. 2022) The large jump in wage growth in December was mostly due to a surge in volatile bonus payments and it will slow over the coming months. 7th February 2023
US Economics Weekly The opposite of stagflation The strength of the early January data appears to rule out the possibility of an imminent recession, but that won’t prevent inflation from continuing to fall sharply from here. 3rd February 2023
US Data Response Employment Report (Jan.) The robust 517,000 gain in non-farm payrolls in January means that, despite most leading indicators of recession flashing red, the economy is clearly not as close to recession as we had suspected... 3rd February 2023
UK Economics Weekly Data needs to beat BoE’s forecasts for further rate hikes This week the Bank of England implied that Bank Rate is at or very close to its peak, and for further rate hikes to happen there needs to be evidence of more persistent inflationary pressures than it... 3rd February 2023
Japan Economics Weekly Electricity rate hike to dilute government subsidies Seven of Japan's ten regional utility companies have applied to the government to raise electricity prices for households. If approved, headline inflation would still drop below the Bank of Japan’s 2%... 3rd February 2023
US Economics Update Fall in quits consistent with slower wage growth Despite the rebound in JOLTS job openings in December, voluntary quits fell slightly and point to a further moderation in both wage growth and PCE core services (ex housing) inflation. 1st February 2023
Latin America Economics Focus Brazil’s rapid wage growth flying under the radar The slowdown that we expect in Brazil’s economy should take some steam out of the labour market, but it looks like it won’t be enough to stop wages from rising at a rapid pace. This appears to be a... 1st February 2023
US Commercial Property Data Response US Metro Employment (Dec.) Despite the solid payrolls data for December, there was a clear softening in employment growth in several large metros. But those that have performed the best since the pandemic continue to outperform... 1st February 2023
Euro-zone Data Response EZ Unemployment (Dec.) The euro-zone unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.6% in December but is likely to increase over the coming months as the economy falls into recession. That said, the increase will probably be smaller... 1st February 2023
UK Economics Update Employment has been resilient so far While we expect employment to weaken, it’s happening at a glacial pace. That feeds into our view that once interest rates peak (perhaps at 4.50% up from 3.50% now) they will stay high for all of this... 31st January 2023
Japan Data Response Japan Labour Market & Activity (Dec. 2022) The unemployment rate stayed unchanged in December, but labour market conditions are beginning to betray signs of loosening. Similarly, the strong rebound in retail sales is likely to give way to... 31st January 2023
