Japan Economics Weekly What to make of the privatisation of the Post Bank? The government took the first step towards the privatisation of the Post Bank by selling a 11% stake on Wednesday. Private ownership will force the Bank to shift its investment portfolio from low... 6th November 2015 · 1 min read
US Economics Update Boom in business lending may be fading The Fed’s latest Senior Loan Officer Survey suggests that growth in business investment in equipment will remain muted over the remainder of this year. 2nd November 2015 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update Stress tests offer little hope of Greek lending revival ECB stress tests have offered some comfort about Greek banks’ solvency, but they are not out of the woods. And with a lack of access to cheap funding and depressed deposits seriously restricting banks... 2nd November 2015 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Update Saudi downgrade puts poor fiscal position in the spotlight The decision by Standard & Poor’s to downgrade Saudi Arabia’s sovereign credit rating on Friday night is hardly surprising in light of the deterioration in the fiscal position this year and lack of a... 2nd November 2015 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly Mr Osborne’s tax credit options Mr Osborne has various options to soften the impact of his cuts in tax credits, but all of them will cost him some money. Admittedly, this might “only” be a couple of billion for a couple of years... 30th October 2015 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Weekly Credit slowdown has further to run Credit growth has continued to weaken in most of the countries which we have previously highlighted as being most at risk of a crisis. The two exceptions are China and Vietnam. Although an... 30th October 2015 · 1 min read
UK Economics Update Household Borrowing Monitor (Sep.) Growth in household borrowing strengthened in September, supporting the ongoing recovery. And although mortgage approvals fell back, we believe this is a temporary blip with fundamentals still... 29th October 2015 · 1 min read
Global Economics Update Money aggregates growing steadily Monetary conditions remain highly accommodative in most advanced economies, notwithstanding the rise in corporate bond yields since the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, broad monetary aggregates are... 28th October 2015 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update Can the ECB really cut rates even further? While we have argued for some time that the ECB will expand its asset purchases in December, we now expect it to cut its deposit rate further into negative territory too. This seems unlikely to have... 28th October 2015 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update Euro-zone Monetary Indicators Monitor (Sep.) September’s euro-zone monetary data point to low inflation and continued slow growth, which is likely strengthen the conviction of policymakers at the ECB that more stimulus is needed. 27th October 2015 · 1 min read
RBA Watch Kneejerk reaction to rising mortgage rates unlikely The tightening in monetary conditions triggered by the recent rises in mortgage rates by the major banks and the strengthening in the dollar is unlikely to prompt the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA)... 27th October 2015 · 1 min read
US Economics Update Monetary Indicators Monitor (Sep.) The growth rate of our M3 broad money aggregate slowed to 5.0% in September butbank loans are still expanding at a healthy 7.7% clip. 26th October 2015 · 1 min read
Global Markets Update How might another debt-ceiling crisis affect US markets? Equities are likely to suffer in the event of yet another damaging stand-off over the US federal debt ceiling. However, a resurgence in safe-haven demand and expectations that the Fed would wait even... 26th October 2015 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Weekly ECB QE expansion now more likely than ever ECB President Mario Draghi surprised many with his very dovish comments at the press conference that followed last week’s ECB Governing Council meeting. But he remained coy about what tools the Bank... 23rd October 2015 · 1 min read
China Economics Update Stimulus, plus a dash of reform The People’s Bank has delivered another jolt of stimulus in the form of cuts to both benchmark interest rates and the required reserve ratio. Deposit rates have also now been fully liberalised, an... 23rd October 2015 · 1 min read
China Chart Pack Services strength underpinning rebalancing For all the (justified) doubts over the accuracy of the headline growth rates, the third quarter GDP data provide evidence of encouraging shifts in the economy. According to the official data... 23rd October 2015 · 1 min read
