Emerging Europe Economics Weekly Emerging Europe Weekly: Israel’s war economy at risk from further escalation Israel’s economy has historically been resilient to conflict, but a continued escalation in hostilities with Iran would raise significant downside risks to activity and the public finances. Heightened... 13th June 2025 · 6 mins read
UK Economics Weekly UK Weekly: Chancellor’s fingers are all over weak employment The Chancellor would have hoped that her Spending Review would leave us all talking about how her policies have improved the economic outlook. Instead, the most striking development of the week was... 13th June 2025 · 8 mins read
Commodities Weekly Commodities Weekly: Israel’s strikes on Iran put the ball in OPEC+’s court From an oil market perspective, the key risk from the latest flare-up in the Middle East is that the nature of retaliatory action disrupts oil supply and trade in the region. OPEC+ will be the key... 13th June 2025 · 4 mins read
Europe Economics Weekly Europe Weekly: End of tariff front-running to weigh on Q2 GDP Data published this week suggest that the boost to the euro-zone economy from exporters front-running US tariffs came to an end at the start of the second quarter. Next week, we expect central banks... 13th June 2025 · 4 mins read
Bonds Update Narrowing of euro-zone spreads not as good as it looks While spreads in the euro-zone have narrowed further recently, nearing multi-year lows, this is mainly because underlying German Bund yields have risen. Indeed, public finances in some euro-zone... 13th June 2025 · 2 mins read
UK Commercial Property Update Closing UK commercial property SDLT ‘loophole’ will weigh on capital values The Deputy Prime Minister has urged the Chancellor to close the commercial property stamp duty ‘loophole’, which could lead to an average increase in tax on property transactions of 2.0 to 2.5%-pts... 13th June 2025 · 3 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Update Israel’s strikes on Iran: assessing the macro impact The overnight strikes by Israel on Iran mark a major escalation in the conflict in the region and, with the oil market tighter than it was a few months ago, the risks to oil prices look more balanced... 13th June 2025 · 6 mins read
Europe Economics Update German fiscal stimulus won’t boost inflation much The upcoming fiscal stimulus in Germany will boost core inflation a bit, but we think the effect will be small and that the core rate will average just over 2% in 2026 and 2027. The stimulus will have... 12th June 2025 · 5 mins read
BoE Watch BOE Watch: Risks shifting towards UK rates being cut below 3.50% The Bank of England will almost certainly leave interest rates at 4.25% at its meeting on Thursday 19th June and will keep its options open for the subsequent meeting in August. But the recent falls... 12th June 2025 · 6 mins read
Emerging Markets Economics Update EM fiscal risks - a story of growing country differences EM sovereign debt risks remain much higher than in the pre-pandemic period. There are positive stories of declining risk in those EMs undergoing reforms (e.g. Argentina) and low fiscal risks in the... 12th June 2025 · 6 mins read
Europe Economics Update Second act for negative rates in Switzerland While it will be close call, we think the SNB is most likely to cut its policy rate by 50bp next week, bringing it back below zero. That would leave little room for more rate cuts further ahead. 12th June 2025 · 5 mins read
Europe Economics Update Norges Bank in no rush to start cutting We expect Norges Bank to wait a bit longer before it finally starts to cut interest rates. And as the economy is growing at a decent pace and the labour market is still tight, the Bank is likely to... 12th June 2025 · 3 mins read
Europe Commercial Property Update Will office rents in Bucharest and Budapest continue to underperform? Having lagged over the past year, the improving economic backdrop should support office demand in Bucharest and Budapest in the coming few years. However, while we think high vacancy rates will limit... 12th June 2025 · 3 mins read
UK Economics Rapid Response UK GDP (Apr. 2025) The fall in GDP in April supports our view that the strength of the economy in Q1 was a red herring and that GDP growth will be more subdued during the rest of the year. This won’t prompt the Bank of... 12th June 2025 · 3 mins read
UK Housing Market Update UK RICS Residential Market Survey (May 2025) While May’s RICS survey suggests the worst of the housing market’s recent weakness is in the rear view mirror, it points to only a modest recovery. Unless there is a more significant rebound in demand... 12th June 2025 · 3 mins read
UK Economics Update The tough decisions for the UK Chancellor won’t end here The 2025 Spending Review is the tightest (outside of the austerity years in the early 2010s) since 2000 and the tough decisions for Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, won’t end here. The government’s U-turns... 11th June 2025 · 6 mins read
