Middle East & North Africa Chart Pack Higher oil prices to help narrow twin deficits The price of oil has continued to rise and will help to improve balance sheets in the Gulf. With oil prices at $75pb, all Gulf economies with the exceptions of Bahrain and Oman are likely to be... 24th June 2021 · 15 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Update RBA to start hiking in early-2023 We now expect the unemployment rate to approach 4% by late-2022. Even though the reopening of the border should ameliorate staff shortages a bit next year, we expect wage growth to accelerate markedly... 23rd June 2021 · 3 mins read
UK Economics Pay growth less inflationary than it looks, England v Scotland The recent jump in pay growth has mainly been driven by base and compositional effects and is therefore less inflationary than it appears at first glance. That’s one reason why we think inflation will... 18th June 2021 · 6 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly RBA policy tightening getting closer The continued decline in the unemployment rate, along with the Fed’s hawkish shift this week will be putting a bit of pressure on the RBA. And given our view that labour shortages will result in... 18th June 2021 · 5 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Australia Labour Market (May) The surge in employment in May demonstrates that the labour market is continuing its extraordinary rebound which supports our call for the RBA to move to a flexible asset purchase programme in July. 17th June 2021 · 2 mins read
Europe Economics Update Labour shortages little threat to German wage restraint There is less spare capacity in Germany’s labour market than elsewhere in the euro-zone, and economic activity is set to regain its pre-crisis level before long. However, we think wage inflation... 16th June 2021 · 4 mins read
Europe Data Response Euro-zone Hourly Labour Costs (Q1) Average hourly labour cost growth slowed in Q1, and we expect wage growth to remain subdued over the coming years. This will keep underlying inflationary pressures down. 16th June 2021 · 2 mins read
China Data Response China Activity & Spending (May) Headline growth on all the key indicators dropped back last month. But after adjusting for base effects the picture was more mixed, with investment slowing, industrial output growth holding steady and... 16th June 2021 · 4 mins read
Long Run Focus Global migration to bounce back Global migration has ground to a halt over the past year or so, but we doubt that the pandemic will have any major lasting impact. Moreover, there is potential for migration to get a fresh impetus... 15th June 2021 · 21 mins read
UK Economics Labour Market (Apr./May) Another strong set of labour market figures released this morning will feed concerns about labour shortages and the possible impact on inflation of higher wage growth. But the level of employment is... 15th June 2021 · 2 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Update Hawkish RBNZ will hike even earlier The RBNZ’s hawkish rate outlook has prompted us to bring forward our forecast for the first RBNZ rate hike from November to May next year. But in contrast to the RBNZ, we don’t think the pandemic will... 14th June 2021 · 4 mins read
Asia Economics Update Taiwan: severe capacity constraints but few inflation fears Taiwan’s economy is struggling with severe capacity constraints but there are few signs in recent data that this is fuelling broad-based wage or price pressure. That’s a stark contrast with the US... 10th June 2021 · 3 mins read
Europe Economics Focus Labour market recovery won’t spark wage spiral We estimate that the spare capacity in the euro-zone’s labour market has increased by around four million people, or 2.5% of the labour force, since the start of the pandemic. This is likely to... 9th June 2021 · 20 mins read
Japan Data Response Japan Wages (Apr.) & GDP (Revised Q1 2021) While the marked acceleration in wage growth in April was largely down to favourable base effects, we think wage growth will remain strong throughout this year as the labour market tightens and... 8th June 2021 · 3 mins read
Canada Data Response Labour Force Survey (May) The continued coronavirus restrictions caused employment to fall for the second month running in May but, with re-opening now underway across the country, employment should rise strongly in the coming... 4th June 2021 · 2 mins read
US Data Response Employment Report (May) The 559,000 gain in non-farm payrolls in May was at least an improvement on the 278,000 gain in April but, with the level of employment still 7.6 million below its pre-pandemic peak, it would take... 4th June 2021 · 2 mins read
