Currency War Series

Bank of Thailand to keep rates steady

Dec 15, 2015 01:51 am UTC| Commentary Central Banks

Bank of Thailand (BOT) is likely to keep its policy rate steady this week. GDP growth momentum remains weak, dragged by a weak private sector demand. There is not much that the BOT can do on this front though. Households...

EM Asia: Central banks await FOMC

Dec 15, 2015 00:15 am UTC| Commentary Central Banks

The Bank of Korea held the policy rate unchanged as expected. It is believed that its neutral tone was deliberate to mitigate potential volatility arising from the expected Fed rate hike next week. It is believed that the...

Janet Yellen's Goldilocks rate rise: lining up the politics and economics

Dec 14, 2015 23:58 pm UTC| Insights & Views Central Banks

On Thursday morning, the Federal Reserve is expected to announce its first increase in US interest rates for nearly a decade. Since the onset of the global financial crisis, the bellwether federal funds rate has been...

Fed to deliver a 25bps hike in the policy rate

Dec 14, 2015 22:30 pm UTC| Commentary Central Banks

Fed is expected to deliver a 25bps hike in the policy rate, raising the target range to 0.25% to 0.50%. The market is fairly priced for this outcome, so the focus will be on the tone of the Feds message. The consensus...

What low interest rates have done for the world – and the likely effects of a rise

Dec 14, 2015 16:36 pm UTC| Insights & Views Central Banks

With the US Federal Reserve seemingly set on raising interest rates, its time to take stock of what low rates have done for the world. And what the prospects are when this era of low interest rates comes to an...

Fed tightening cycles are widely seen as bad news for EM Markets

Dec 14, 2015 16:28 pm UTC| Commentary Central Banks

Higher interest rates from the Fed need not be bad news for EM. After all, the Fed initiates a tightening cycle because it views the US economy strong enough to cope. Moreover, the Fed has been warming up for this...

Fed Liftoff Series

FED liftoff series – expected hike path

Dec 14, 2015 16:15 pm UTC| Commentary Central Banks

The event the world has been awaiting, preparing and speculating for is finally approaching - meeting by US Federal Reserve, in which US interest rates will finally rise from their zero bound. Market is now pricing 72%...