Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Full employment has not been achieved Even though the unemployment rate has fallen to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s 5.0% estimate of the natural rate, the RBA will still want to see signs of much faster wage growth before it hikes... 19th October 2018 · 1 min read
US Chart Pack Markets right to fret about rising interest rates The fall in equity prices over the past couple of weeks is hard to square with the recent economic data, which suggest that GDP growth was 3.0% annualised in the third quarter. The sell-off appears... 18th October 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Labour Market (Sep.) Whether or not the decline in the unemployment rate in September to the RBA’s estimate of the natural rate of 5.0% prompts the Bank to raise interest rates sooner depends on what happens to wage... 18th October 2018 · 1 min read
Europe Economic Outlook Modest slowdown masks large divergences Prospects for Europe have deteriorated somewhat as slowing global demand has begun to affect exports and a sharp rise in bond yields has darkened the outlook for Italy. Some of the major players... 17th October 2018 · 1 min read
UK Data Response Labour Market (Aug.) We think that the drop in employment in the three months to August is more likely to be a blip rather than the beginning of a sustained decline in jobs growth. What’s more, pay growth continued to... 16th October 2018 · 1 min read
Global Economics Update Is the Phillips Curve back from the dead? After years of falling unemployment, wage growth has finally been picking up in the major advanced economies this year. However, the forces that have kept a lid on pay growth over the past decade are... 16th October 2018 · 1 min read
Japan Chart Pack Back down to earth in Q3 Japan’s economy was always likely to slow in the third quarter after the surge of output it generated in the second. But the latest data have still been rather disappointing. While investment remains... 15th October 2018 · 1 min read
India Economic Outlook Rapid growth to continue for a while yet GDP growth has surged in recent quarters and, while it has probably peaked, we expect it to remain strong ahead of the general election in the first half of 2019. Thereafter, a focus on fiscal... 11th October 2018 · 1 min read
Japan Economic Outlook Good times continue Domestic demand will pick up speed ahead of next year’s sales tax hike, extending one of Japan’s strongest runs of growth since the 1980s, and price pressures will strengthen. But weaker domestic... 9th October 2018 · 1 min read
US Data Response Employment Report (Sep.) & International Trade (Aug.) The weaker 134,000 gain in non-farm payrolls in September may well be a one-off, reflecting some hit from Hurricane Florence. With large upward revisions to previous months’ payroll gains, a fall in... 5th October 2018 · 1 min read
Canada Data Response Labour Force Survey (Sep.) & Int. Trade (Aug.) September’s impressive rebound in employment is another reason to think that the Bank of Canada will pull the trigger on a rate hike later this month. While we think that the current strength of the... 5th October 2018 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Weekly Households remain gloomy, yen to strengthen again Japan’s labour market is as strong as most of today’s workers will ever have known, which makes the persistent weakness of consumption all the more puzzling. Spending remains flat according to data... 5th October 2018 · 1 min read
Japan Data Response Labour Cash Earnings & Household Spending (Aug.) The strongest rise in regular earnings since 1997 should be followed by even stronger gains in coming months as the labour market tightens further. 5th October 2018 · 1 min read
Europe Chart Pack Country divergence looks set to continue Business and consumer surveys suggest that growth in the euro-zone as a whole will continue at a fairly healthy pace of around 0.4% per quarter in the near term. But there is a growing divergence by... 4th October 2018 · 1 min read
Global Economics Chart Pack Third-quarter slowdown a sign of things to come The world economy seems to have lost some momentum in the past few months and we expect it to slow further in the coming year. World trade growth has fallen sharply, though this is due to weakening... 4th October 2018 · 1 min read
UK Economics Chart Pack Growth appears to have ticked up in Q3 The Markit/CIPS all-sector output PMI was more or less unchanged in Q3 compared to Q2, consistent with GDP growth remaining steady at 0.4% q/q. However, we think that growth was a little bit stronger... 4th October 2018 · 1 min read