UK Economics Chart Pack Mixed messages about high street demand (Apr 08) The fairly robust picture given by the official retail sales data continues to contrast with the weaker tone of just about every other indicator of the strength of high street demand. What’s more... 24th April 2008 · 1 min read
Global Economics Update World trade slowing, but unlikely to collapse Developments in world trade are one indication of the ability of the global economy to “decouple” from the recession in the US. The most recent numbers are fairly reassuring. We expect the pace of... 24th April 2008 · 1 min read
UK Commercial Property Focus What is the outlook for hotel property? Our macroeconomic forecasts suggest that after being one of the best performing property sectors over recent years and the “best of the worst” in 2008, weak economic growth in the UK, Euro-zone and US... 24th April 2008 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update Inflation concerns to delay the ECB The European Central Bank’s continued hawkishness suggests that euro-zone interest rates are now unlikely to fall before the third quarter of this year at the earliest. But we still think rates will... 24th April 2008 · 1 min read
UK Economics Update Lower pound will not prevent a manufacturing recession The sharp fall in the pound seen since last summer is unlikely to prevent the manufacturing sector from slipping into a recession this year. But it should mean that the downturn will be fairly shallow... 23rd April 2008 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Focus The re-emergence of hidden housing supply is set to worsen the housing market downturn Many owner-occupiers are engaged in a form of speculation, in that whether, when, and how much space they buy is heavily influenced by their beliefs about the future course of house prices. As it... 23rd April 2008 · 1 min read
UK Commercial Property Update RICS survey highlights vulnerability of retail rental values to falls In a Commercial Property Data Response on Monday, we reported on the aggregate balances from the RICS Commercial Market Survey for 2008Q1, which were worryingly downbeat. Now, having had more time to... 23rd April 2008 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Update What next for Chinese equities? There is unlikely to be much respite for battered Chinese equity investors in the near term. Macroeconomic fundamentals suggest that the markets in Shanghai and Shenzhen may have fallen too far, but... 23rd April 2008 · 1 min read
