UK Economics Weekly Higher fuel duty wouldn’t reignite inflation In a week when the Prime Minister said that the coming Budget will be “painful”, we think there’s a growing chance that fuel duty will rise from next year for the first time since 2011. That will... 30th August 2024 · 4 mins read
Europe Economics Update Budget gridlock will keep Belgium’s deficit high Belgium's political crisis and high budget deficit have largely gone unnoticed in past couple of months while all eyes have been on France. This Update answers some key questions about its political... 30th August 2024 · 3 mins read
Europe Economics Weekly Taking stock of the euro-zone’s Q3 performance so far At this stage, we have no significant hard data with which to assess economic activity in the euro-zone in Q3. But the signs from the business surveys are not promising. Meanwhile, the minutes of the... 30th August 2024 · 7 mins read
Emerging Europe Economics Weekly Poland’s generous budget, Israel-Hezbollah The Polish government’s draft budget for 2025 announced this week suggests that fiscal policy will be more expansionary than we had previously expected next year. While that poses an upside risk to... 30th August 2024 · 8 mins read
Europe Rapid Response Euro-zone HICP (August 2024) We doubt that August’s unexpected increase in services inflation will stop the ECB from cutting interest rates at its next meeting in September. 30th August 2024 · 2 mins read
UK Commercial Property Rapid Response Lending to commercial property (Jul. 24) Net lending to commercial property was positive for the fourth consecutive month in July, albeit by a smaller £520mn. With development lending still negative, this was driven entirely by a rise in... 30th August 2024 · 1 min read
UK Economics Rapid Response UK Money & Lending (Jul. 2024) July’s money and lending data provide further evidence that a steady improvement in the flow and demand of credit is supporting the economic recovery. That said, credit growth is unlikely to... 30th August 2024 · 3 mins read
UK Housing Market Rapid Response UK Nationwide House Price Index (Aug. 2024) Despite the recent declines in mortgage rates, the small fall in the Nationwide house price index in August suggests affordability constraints on households continue to bite. But the further drop in... 30th August 2024 · 3 mins read
Europe Economics Update Germany and Spain HICP (Aug.) Inflation figures for Germany and Spain suggest that euro-zone headline inflation may have fallen to the ECB’s 2% target in August and that the core rate edged down. That paves the way for a September... 29th August 2024 · 2 mins read
Europe Commercial Property Update Prime office rent gains to beat consensus expectations Prime office rents look set to rise by more than we had previously expected over the next few years given still low CBD vacancy, preferences for prime space and cuts to the supply pipeline in 2025-26... 29th August 2024 · 3 mins read
Emerging Europe Rapid Response Russia Activity Data (Jul.) The latest Russian industrial production and retail sales figures for July were a mixed bag and suggest that the economy maintained a steady pace of growth at the start of this quarter. But we still... 28th August 2024 · 2 mins read
Capital Daily UK interest rate exceptionalism unlikely to last The ongoing reassessment of the monetary policy outlook in the US and Europe has (again) made the UK look like an outlier. We doubt that will last. 28th August 2024 · 4 mins read
UK Commercial Property Update Is the City of London bouncing back? City offices have underperformed their West End neighbours by a wide margin since 2022. More encouraging recent data have led us to revise up our City rental projections, but we still expect stronger... 28th August 2024 · 3 mins read
Emerging Europe Rapid Response Israel Interest Rate Announcement (Aug.) The decision by the Bank of Israel (BoI) to leave its policy rate on hold again today (at 4.50%) rather than resume the easing cycle, reflects policymakers’ concerns with supply-side constraints in... 28th August 2024 · 2 mins read
Asset Allocation Focus Is the discreet strength of European equities already over? For all the talk about AI, equities in Europe have delivered nearly as much as those in the US over the past few years. But we think that US equities will take the lead more clearly over the next year... 28th August 2024 · 10 mins read