Central Banking Series

BoJ upgrades real GDP growth projections, likely to keep policy unchanged into 2018 – Wells Fargo

Apr 27, 2017 22:15 pm UTC| Commentary

The Japanese central bank, Bank of Japan kept its monetary policy unchanged on Thursday and upgraded its GDP growth projection. Meanwhile, it slightly cut its inflation projection for 2017 and kept it unchanged for the...

U.S. headline payrolls likely rose in April, jobless rate to have remained unchanged at 4.5 pct - Barclays

Apr 27, 2017 21:57 pm UTC| Commentary

Headline payrolls in the U.S. are likely to have increased in April. According to a Barclays research report, payrolls are expected to have risen 225,000, most of which are likely to have come from the private sector. The...

German GfK consumer sentiment index rises in April, likely to rise further in May

Apr 27, 2017 20:03 pm UTC| Commentary

German consumer sentiment is on the rise again. The GfK consumer climate index for Germany came in at 9.8 points in April. Sentiment in the nation is clearly enjoying tailwind again in April, noted GfK. For May, the...

Central Banking Series

Riksbank keeps repo rate on hold, hints at longer period of loose monetary policy

Apr 27, 2017 19:18 pm UTC| Commentary Central Banks

As widely expected, the Swedish central bank, Riksbank, kept its repo rate on hold at -0.50 percent. However, the banks report contained certain surprises hinting at a loose monetary policy for an even longer period, noted...

U.S. pending home sales falls sequentially in March, remains at strong level

Apr 27, 2017 18:17 pm UTC| Commentary

Pending home sales in the U.S. dropped sequentially in March after rising robustly in the prior month. The sales fell 0.8 percent month-on-month, as compared with Februarys rise of 5.5 percent and consensus expectations of...

U.S. durable goods order grows sequentially in March, supports acceleration in business fixed investment

Apr 27, 2017 18:15 pm UTC| Commentary

The U.S. durable goods orders grew 0.7 percent on a sequential basis in March, a slowdown from the upwardly revised 2.3 percent growth in February. The March data has come below the consensus expectations of a rise of 1.3...

U.S. goods trade deficit widens in March, suggests slowdown in economic activity in Q1

Apr 27, 2017 16:27 pm UTC| Commentary

The U.S. March advanced goods trade deficit broadened modestly to USD 64.8 billion from Februarys deficit of USD 63.9 billion. This is consistent with the consensus expectations. The goods exports dropped 1.7 percent on a...