UK Economics Update Brexit Watch: Is a “Hard Brexit” on the cards? This week provided some further indications that policymakers are leaning towards a harder form of Brexit package than initially anticipated. However, the UK at least appears to be headed into... 30th September 2016 · 1 min read
Commodities Weekly OPEC’s surprise deal lacks substance The price of oil surged this week in response to the announcement that OPEC members had reached a deal to curb output. However, we are sceptical that this new deal will lead to lower oil supply, not... 30th September 2016 · 1 min read
Precious Metals Update Is China’s appetite for gold faltering? The slump in China’s imports of gold in August has raised concerns about the country’s appetite for the yellow metal. However, the bigger picture is one of relatively robust demand so far this year... 30th September 2016 · 1 min read
Canada Economics Weekly Trump’s trade complaints put Canada in the firing line During the first US presidential debate last week, Republican nominee Donald Trump predictably returned to one of the central themes of his campaign; that the US is being cheated by global trade rules... 30th September 2016 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Economics Update Romanian rate hikes coming onto the agenda Comments by the Romanian National Bank Governor at this afternoon’s post-meeting press conference suggest that the MPC is inching towards starting a tightening cycle, reinforcing our view that the... 30th September 2016 · 1 min read
Canada Data Response GDP by Industry (Jul. 16) The bigger than expected 0.5% m/m gain in July GDP means that the Bank of Canada’s forecast of a 3.5% annualised increase for the third quarter as a whole now looks well within reach. However, it is... 30th September 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Weekly Will the housing market hold back the economy? In contrast to the mostly upbeat data on the state of the economy after the Brexit vote, the housing market still appears to be cooling. But we don’t think house prices or transactions will fall too... 30th September 2016 · 1 min read
UK Economics Update Consumer spending resilient ahead of referendum The latest Quarterly National Accounts showed that consumer spending held up well ahead of the referendum. Looking ahead, although we expect some slowdown, there are a number of factors which should... 30th September 2016 · 1 min read
Latin America Data Response Chile Retail Sales, Ind. Prod. & Copper Prod. (Aug.) Chilean activity data for August were mixed, but on balance they reinforce our view that a large part of Q2’s weakness was temporary. The early signs are that GDP growth picked up from 1.5% y/y in Q2... 30th September 2016 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Update Strong Saudi Q2 GDP data could be revised down The 1.4% y/y Q2 GDP growth in Saudi Arabia reported by the local statistics authority was significantly stronger than we had expected. But we find this difficult to square with the weaker low-profile... 30th September 2016 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Weekly Is euro-zone growth picking up or slowing? The euro-zone’s two main activity surveys have given conflicting evidence about the state of the economy at the end of the third quarter, with the Composite PMI apparently pointing to slowing GDP... 30th September 2016 · 1 min read
Africa Economics Update Nigeria: Naira crashes on parallel market The widening gap between Nigerian’s official and parallel exchange rates highlights the CBN’s continuing influence over the official FX market. We expect that the official rate will be devalued by... 30th September 2016 · 1 min read
Emerging Markets Activity Monitor A temporary pause in the EM recovery Our EM GDP Tracker suggests that, after accelerating for most of this year, EM growth was unchanged in July. We think that this pause in the EM recovery should prove to be temporary and we continue to... 30th September 2016 · 1 min read
UK Data Response National Accounts & Balance of Payments (Q2) Today’s Quarterly National Accounts and Balance of Payments figures for Q2 showed that the economy was even more resilient ahead of the EU referendum than previously thought, although it remained... 30th September 2016 · 1 min read
Europe Data Response Euro-zone Flash CPI (Sep.) & Unemployment (Aug.) Headline inflation in the euro-zone has started to pick up as the effects of previous falls in energy prices fade. But with a large amount of slack in the labour market, underlying price pressures... 30th September 2016 · 1 min read
