Japan’s January manufacturing activity expands at sharpest pace in almost three years

Jan 24, 2017 04:48 am UTC| Commentary

Japans manufacturing conditions have rebounded at the sharpest pace seen in almost three years. The Flash Japan Manufacturing PMI rose to 52.8 in January from 52.4 in December. This was the highest since March 2014. The...

Mexican government announces measures to lure capital inflows

Jan 23, 2017 16:33 pm UTC| Commentary Economy

Mexicos foreign trade (renegotiation of NAFTA) and immigration are likely to be impacted. Owing to the high budget deficit, fiscal policy has little leeway for economic stimuli. The initial symptoms are visible in the...

Central Banking Series

Malaysia's Bank Negara likely to keep policy rate on hold this year

Jan 23, 2017 16:17 pm UTC| Commentary Central Banks

The Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) held overnight policy rate (OPR) unchanged at 3.00 percent, as it was widely expected at policy meet last week. In the policy statement that followed, Bank Negara noted that the private...

Compliance monitoring meeting at Vienna shows OPEC, allies exceeding promised reductions, says Novak

Jan 23, 2017 15:54 pm UTC| Commentary

At the first meeting of a joint OPEC-non-OPEC committee over the weekend in Vienna, Russias energy minister Alexander Novak said that OPEC and key non-OPEC oil producers are near their target of taking 1.8 million barrels...

Kuroda’s optimistic comments at Davos suggest BoJ will maintain upbeat economic and price forecasts at Jan meet

Jan 23, 2017 15:08 pm UTC| Commentary Central Banks

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda at the World Economic Forum at Davos was optimistic that Japans economy is likely to head toward a sustainable growth path as global trade and manufacturing activity pick up. The...

Central Bank of Turkey likely to hike rates at Tuesday's policy meet

Jan 23, 2017 14:34 pm UTC| Commentary Central Banks Economy

Central Bank of Turkey (CBT) meets Tuesday to decide monetary policy and is likely to hike the benchmark repo rate by 50 bp to 8.50 percent. Turkey has exceeded its inflation target of 5 percent for a very long time. It...

Canadian bonds surge following weakness in energy prices

Jan 23, 2017 12:49 pm UTC| Commentary

The Canadian bonds snapped fall at the start of the week, following weakness in global crude oil prices as speculations of a rise in output in the United States offset the news that OPEC and non-OPEC producers were on...