Australia & New Zealand Economics Update New Zealand - Higher spending may provide a small economic boost Significant increases in operating and capital spending are a welcome takeaway from today’s Budget. But the economic impact is likely to be modest and the government is still expected to be a drag on... 30th May 2019 · 1 min read
RBI Watch Three cuts in a row The MPC is likely to use the current low rate of headline inflation as justification for a third consecutive rate cut at the conclusion of its policy meeting on Thursday 6th June. But with a growing... 30th May 2019 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Update Is the trade war impacting Japanese FDI? While there is growing anecdotal evidence of some Japanese firms shifting production of US-bound goods from China to Southeast Asia, the large size of China’s domestic market means that China will... 30th May 2019 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Private Capex Survey (Q1) Private investment probably fell for the third consecutive quarter in Q1 and firms’ forecasts point to further declines over coming quarters. 30th May 2019 · 1 min read
Latin America Chart Pack Regional growth slumps The raft of GDP data released this month showed that regional growth slowed to just 0.3% y/y in Q1 (from 1.0% y/y in Q4), the weakest pace in two years. While it doesn’t look like sluggish growth will... 29th May 2019 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Chart Pack Monetary tightening comes into focus Emerging Europe has been one of the few parts of the emerging world where attention has centred on monetary tightening (rather than loosening) in the past month. A rise in core inflation to multi-year... 29th May 2019 · 1 min read
Nordic & Swiss Data Response Sweden, Finland & Denmark GDP (Q1) Swedish GDP surprised on the upside in Q1 but the outcome masked domestic weakness. With surveys indicating that growth will slow again, and core inflation set to stay subdued, we continue to expect... 29th May 2019 · 1 min read
Asia Chart Pack Who is winning the trade war? With the trade war between the US and China continuing to escalate, a clear winner is starting to emerge: Vietnam. Since around the middle of last year, Vietnam’s exports to the US have shot up by... 29th May 2019 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Focus House prices may rebound in early 2020 We expect the current housing downturn to end around the turn of the year. We think that house prices may rise by 3% from their trough in 2020 and by 5% in 2021. While rising house prices should boost... 29th May 2019 · 1 min read
Africa Economics Update Angola: another year of recession The latest developments support our non-consensus view that Angola’s economy will contract again in 2019. Taken together with falling inflation, the central bank’s easing cycle has further to run. 28th May 2019 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Data Response Economic Sentiment Indicators (May) May’s set of ESIs suggests that aggregate GDP growth in Central and Eastern Europe slowed to 3.5% y/y in Q2 following impressively strong growth of 4.3% y/y in Q1. 28th May 2019 · 1 min read
UK Economics Chart Pack Households to rein in spending in Q2 Some of the surge in consumer spending growth from 0.3% q/q in Q4 to 0.7% q/q in Q1 might have been due to households bringing forward purchases ahead of the original 29th March Brexit deadline. If so... 28th May 2019 · 1 min read
Europe Data Response EC Business and Consumer Survey (May) The small increase in the euro-zone’s Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) is a welcome bit of good news. But it is not enough to fully reverse its fall in April, and does not change our view that... 28th May 2019 · 1 min read
Nordic & Swiss Data Response Switzerland GDP (Q1) and Swedish ETI (May) Swiss Q1 GDP data released this morning offer some comfort that the Swiss economy has put the weak patch in H2 2018 behind it. But indicators suggest that growth is likely to slow over the rest of... 28th May 2019 · 1 min read
RBA Watch Rates may fall to 0.75% The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has telegraphed that it will cut interest rates to 1.25% in June and we think it will follow up with another 25bp cut in August. But we suspect that further easing... 28th May 2019 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Update Weakest growth in a decade, further weakness ahead Growth slowed sharply in Emerging Asia last quarter, and is likely to remain fairly weak over the coming year, with looser fiscal and monetary policy unlikely to offset the drag from weaker global... 27th May 2019 · 1 min read