Currency War Series

A second rate cut from Bank Indonesia likely in March

Jan 20, 2016 17:09 pm UTC| Commentary Central Banks

Bank Indonesia (BI) cut its policy rate by 25bp to 7.25% on 14 January, as widely expected. Earlier markets expected BI to cut in February, given the governors recent concern over financial volatility. But renewed downward...

Currency War Series

A dovish BoK tilt adds downward bias for KRW

Jan 20, 2016 15:26 pm UTC| Commentary Central Banks

The Bank of Korea held the policy rate at 1.5% in January, as expected and revised lower the official growth and inflation forecasts for 2016 to 3% (from 3.2%) and 1.4% (1.7%), respectively. The statement that followed had...

2016 likely to be another devastating year for the Loonie

Jan 20, 2016 12:01 pm UTC| Insights & Views Central Banks

The recent commodity price meltdown and especially the crudes struggle causing the reaction function of firms in the Canadian oil and gas sector proposes that business investment may be even more of a drag on 2016 growth...

Fed Hike Aftermath Series

FED hike aftermath series – Expectation for June hike vanishes amid global rout

Jan 20, 2016 10:44 am UTC| Commentary Central Banks

At the end of last year, market was predicting FED will hike rates twice this year and the first to come as early as March. However, global financial market turmoil has been pushing hikes into the future, since the...

Currency War Series

BOC monetary policy preview

Jan 20, 2016 10:28 am UTC| Commentary Central Banks

Today Bank of Canada (BOC) is to provide further guidance in policy meet. Result to be announced at 15:00 GMT. Current policy measures BOC is maintaining overnight deposit rate at 0.5% Core objective of BOC...

Currency War Series

RBNZ likely to lower OCR further to 2% in 2016 on weaker CPI data

Jan 20, 2016 04:32 am UTC| Commentary Central Banks

New Zealands Consumer Price Index (CPI) dropped by 0.5% in Q4 2015, lower than Westpacs below-market projection of a drop of 0.4%. Meanwhile, the countrys annual inflation rate declined to just 0.1% from 0.4%. The drop in...

Dovish ECB rhetoric likely to weigh on Euro

Jan 19, 2016 15:30 pm UTC| Commentary Central Banks

ECB is widely expected to remain unchanged at its January meeting and press conference (Thursday), but dovish rhetoric is likely to exert downward pressure on the currency. Tightening in financial conditions that has...