Nordic & Swiss Economics Weekly What’s Norwegian for ‘nepotism’?; franc in freefall! The sharp fall in the Swiss franc against the euro since Christine Lagarde’s hawkish routine on Thursday will have been music to the ears of the SNB. We think the Bank will be happy to bask in the... 4th February 2022 · 6 mins read
Europe Economics Weekly A hawk in owl’s clothing Highly-indebted euro-zone governments look better placed to cope with tighter monetary policy than they were when the ECB last raised interest rates, in 2011. In most cases, governments’ interest... 4th February 2022 · 6 mins read
Nordic & Swiss Economics Update Stoltenberg is not the most logical of appointments Today’s appointment of Jens Stoltenberg as the new Governor of the Norges Bank is a slap in the face for the bus driver, plumber, and baker who had applied for the job, as well as the two thirds of... 4th February 2022 · 3 mins read
UK Commercial Property Data Response IHS Markit/CIPS Construction PMI (Jan.) In contrast to the decline at the end of last year, the construction PMI rose to its highest level in six months in January. There were also encouraging signs that supply and cost issues have started... 4th February 2022 · 2 mins read
Europe Data Response Retail Sales (Dec.) The fall in euro-zone retail sales volumes in December means that sales growth slowed significantly in Q4 as a whole. While we expect consumer spending to recover over the coming months when... 4th February 2022 · 2 mins read
Europe Commercial Property Update Supply to limit Dublin office rental revival The recovery in Dublin offices has lagged the broader economic upturn. While demand is expected to improve in 2022, with a full supply pipeline, it is likely that vacancy will stay at relatively high... 4th February 2022 · 3 mins read
Europe Economics Update What explains January’s inflation surprise? Most of the surprise in January’s inflation data came from energy inflation. But core inflation was also unexpectedly strong. With underlying price pressures continuing to build, there is a good... 3rd February 2022 · 2 mins read
Nordic & Swiss Central Bank Watch Riksbank to fall on its dovish sword next week While the Riksbank is likely to leave the repo rate unchanged at zero next Thursday (10 th February), a hawkish shift is now long overdue. We have pencilled in a 25bp repo rate hike in November 2021... 3rd February 2022 · 5 mins read
Emerging Europe Economics Update CNB signals that tightening cycle is almost done The Czech National Bank (CNB) slowed the pace of its tightening cycle for the second consecutive month today and the accompanying communications were less hawkish than expected and suggest that there... 3rd February 2022 · 2 mins read
Europe Economics Update ECB turns hawkish and tees up 2022 rate hikes While the ECB did not change its policy settings today, President Lagarde more than made up for it in the press conference. We now think the ECB will decide in March to taper its asset purchases... 3rd February 2022 · 3 mins read
Frontier Markets Wrap Sovereign debt risks becoming more acute Sovereign dollar bond spreads have widened significantly in several Frontiers over the past couple of months, driven largely by country-specific factors. There are reasons to be hopeful that outright... 3rd February 2022 · 3 mins read
UK Economics BoE may hike rates to 1.25% this year despite Sunak’s help While the decisions by the Bank of England to hike interest rates from 0.25% to 0.50% and to start reversing quantitative easing (QE) were both as expected, with four MPC members wanting to raise... 3rd February 2022 · 4 mins read
Europe Commercial Property Update Good times over for industrial rents in major ports While the recent improvement in world trade is encouraging for industrial demand in the major port markets, we don’t expect an acceleration in rental growth this year. Supply bottlenecks will still... 3rd February 2022 · 3 mins read
UK Commercial Property Data Response RICS Construction Market Survey (Q4) The latest RICS survey indicated that activity in Q4 and the outlook for the short term were broadly unchanged. The survey also suggested that labour and material shortages will continue to hurt... 3rd February 2022 · 2 mins read
Europe Data Response Euro-zone Final PMIs (Jan.) The final Composite PMIs for January confirm that the euro-zone economy started 2022 on a weak note but the improving health situation suggests that growth will pick back up over the rest of the... 3rd February 2022 · 2 mins read
Europe Data Response Euro-zone Flash HICP (Jan.) January’s inflation data support our view that the ECB will soon forecast inflation to be at its target over the medium term. Accordingly, we think that policymakers will end net asset purchases... 2nd February 2022 · 3 mins read
