Emerging Europe Economics Update Russia: No sign of a boost from higher oil prices... yet Higher oil prices have not yet fed through to a pick-up in the Russian economy. In fact, if anything the annual rate of GDP growth appears to have slowed in Q1. 20th April 2011 · 1 min read
US Housing Market Data Response Existing Home Sales (Mar.) March's existing home sales data provide more evidence that the economic recovery has bypassed the housing market. What's worse is that these figures may be overestimating the level of sales by up to... 20th April 2011 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Update Will foreign aid help Jordan’s struggling economy? Faced with the prospects of the growing social unrest, the Jordanian government had little choice but to increase food and fuel subsidies this year, and reduce taxes (on some food and fuel products)... 20th April 2011 · 1 min read
US Fed Watch Bernanke steps into brave new world The conclusion of next week's two-day FOMC meeting on Wednesday will mark the start of a brave new world, with Chairman Ben Bernanke scheduled to host the Fed's first post-meeting press conference. We... 20th April 2011 · 1 min read
Europe Commercial Property Outlook Too soon to look for a recovery in peripheral markets Since our previous Analyst we have become a little more optimistic about the potential for returns in some of the core euro-zone commercial property markets such as Germany, France and Belgium, as... 20th April 2011 · 1 min read
UK Commercial Property Update Are Central London office yields too low? In our view, the historically large yield differentials between Central London and regional offices can be justified by relative rental growth prospects. But that judgement is finely balanced and it... 20th April 2011 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Update More monetary tightening to come in Thailand The Bank of Thailand (BoT) hiked its policy rate by 25bp to 2.75% today, as was universally expected. As with elsewhere in the region, keeping a lid on inflation remains the key concern for... 20th April 2011 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Update Exports drop after earthquake disruption Japanese trade took a sharp turn for the worse in March after the earthquake and tsunami disrupted production and damaged infrastructure. The trade surplus fell to its lowest level in two years as... 20th April 2011 · 1 min read
Latin America Economics Update Currency wars take a back seat... for now Concerns over rising inflation have displaced fears about speculative capital inflows and excessive currency appreciation at the top of the list of policy priorities. Interest rates look set to rise... 20th April 2011 · 1 min read
UK Data Response MPC Minutes (Apr.) The dovish tone of the minutes of April’s MPC meeting has further reduced the chances of a rise in interest rates at next month’s meeting. If the recent weaker tone of the economic data is sustained... 20th April 2011 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Economic Outlook Gulf countries key to regional stability The social unrest spreading through the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) will result in a two-way split in economic performance across the region. In the resource-rich countries, high oil prices... 20th April 2011 · 1 min read
China Economics Update A policy shift on the renminbi China appears to be on the verge of allowing faster currency appreciation in response to inflation . This may not last long if inflation drops back in the second half of the year, as we expect. For... 19th April 2011 · 1 min read
Canada Data Response Consumer Price Index (Mar.) The pass through of higher commodity prices was behind the jump in CPI inflation, to 3.3% in March from 2.2% in February. Considering the temporary nature of these supply shocks, however, we still don... 19th April 2011 · 1 min read
US Housing Market Data Response Housing Starts (Mar.) The rebound in housing starts in March does little to hide the fact that homebuilding activity remains close to rock bottom. With both the demand and need for new homes still very low, housing starts... 19th April 2011 · 1 min read
UK Economics Update Are the trade figures better than they look? Rising commodity prices have been boosting import values, meaning that the underlying trade deficit is not quite as bad as the headline figures suggest. Nonetheless, this goes only some of the way to... 19th April 2011 · 1 min read
