Middle East & North Africa Economics Update Egypt’s BoP improves, but pound pressure to persist Egypt’s balance of payments (BoP) position strengthened markedly late last year, but policymakers’ reluctance to live up to their reform promises appears to be causing capital inflows to slow to a... 2nd May 2023 · 3 mins read
China Chart Pack Financial flows, not trade, leading CNH expansion The renminbi surpassed the US dollar to become the most-commonly-used currency in China’s cross-border transactions for the first time last month. Part of the increase – the part that has received... 27th April 2023 · 11 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Weekly Egypt default fears on the rise The IMF and foreign investors are growing increasingly concerned about the lack of reform progress from Egypt’s government. The pound appears to still be heavily managed and the government’s... 27th April 2023 · 6 mins read
Latin America Economics Update Colombia: political risks back in the spotlight The replacement of Colombia’s market-friendly finance minister José Antonio Ocampo with a close ally of President Petro is likely to lead to a sell-off in Colombia’s financial assets when markets open... 27th April 2023 · 3 mins read
Latin America Chart Pack Monetary policy stance slowly shifting The raft of inflation data over the past couple of weeks will have provided some relief for Latin American central banks, with headline rates in most countries now on a clear downward trajectory. In... 26th April 2023 · 15 mins read
Canada Chart Pack Housing turnaround makes the Bank’s job harder House prices edged up in March and the sharp rise in the sales-to-new listing ratio suggests there are further gains to come. As the improvement has been driven mainly by a collapse in new listings... 26th April 2023 · 8 mins read
US Data Response Durable Goods (Mar.) The 3.2% m/m jump in durable goods orders in March mainly reflects a stronger-than-expected gain in the more volatile commercial aircraft component, with the details suggesting that first-quarter... 26th April 2023 · 2 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Chart Pack IMF deals in choppy waters Balance of payments strains have prompted Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia to turn to the IMF over the past six months or so, but agreements in Egypt and Tunisia are faltering. The IMF postponed its first... 26th April 2023 · 12 mins read
Emerging Markets Economics Chart Pack The monetary policy tide is (slowly) turning EM central banks have, in general, remained in hawkish mood over recent weeks. Tightening cycles have continued in Mexico, Colombia and South Africa in response to high inflation, while policymakers... 24th April 2023 · 9 mins read
Emerging Europe Economics Update CEE: current account improvement to continue Large current account deficits across CEE have started to narrow in recent months and we think that this will continue as slowing economies and lower energy prices shrink import bills. This will... 20th April 2023 · 3 mins read
US Chart Pack Direct economic effects of CRE rout will be limited We expect rising interest rates and structural headwinds to trigger a deep rout in commercial real estate. The impacts on the real economy will be mostly indirect via the impact on small bank lending... 20th April 2023 · 10 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Weekly Aramco-PIF, COP28, Tunisia politics, Black Sea grain The latest transfer of a 4% stake in Aramco by the Saudi government to the Public Investment Fund will help meet the Kingdom meet its Vision 2030 goals, but it will not reduce the state’s dependency... 20th April 2023 · 6 mins read
India Chart Pack The geopolitical balancing act India is benefitting from maintaining its historic unaligned stance in tensions between the US and Russia. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, India has been ramping up oil imports from Russia to... 20th April 2023 · 10 mins read
Japan Data Response Japan External Trade (Mar. 2023) The trade deficit narrowed in March as import values fell faster than export values. Data for Q1 so far are still consistent with a negative contribution from net trade to GDP. 20th April 2023 · 3 mins read