Bank of Israel to be on hold for longer

Sep 25, 2015 02:56 am UTC| Commentary

The Bank of Israel (BoI) decided to keep its base rate on hold at 0.10%, in line with expectations. The BoI staff has lowered both its inflation and growth forecasts substantially since its June forecasts.Notwithstanding,...

Asia stocks mixed after Yellen says 2015 rate hike still likely

Sep 25, 2015 02:49 am UTC| Commentary

Asian markets were a mixed bag on Friday, with traders digesting the Federal Reserves latest take on monetary policy, which stamped the banks preferred lift-off timing as this year. Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Janet Yellen...

PMIs lower need for ECB stimulus

Sep 25, 2015 02:24 am UTC| Commentary

While the European Central Bank (ECB) continues to highlight downside risks to growth, surveys/ hard data question this need. Sep advance composite PMIs eased a notch to 53.9 from Augs 54. Despite this moderation, PMIs...

IDR NEER at record-low

Sep 25, 2015 02:18 am UTC| Commentary

While the rupiah nominal effective exchange rate (NEER) has been pretty stable since end-2013, it is currently trading at a record low, about 1% lower than the level seen in Dec13. Bank Indonesia (BI) has taken notice of...

Singapore's industrial production figures today will hint on the risk of a technical recession

Sep 25, 2015 02:06 am UTC| Commentary

Singapores industrial production figures today will hint on the risk of a technical recession. The headline number is expected to dip by 6.8% YoY, compared to a 6.1% decline previously. On the margin, anything more than a...

Taiwan's central bank cut policy rate for the first time in six years

Sep 25, 2015 01:56 am UTC| Commentary Central Banks

Taiwans central bank cut rates by 12.5bps yesterday, taking the benchmark discount rate to 1.75% from 1.875%. The widening of a negative output gap, easing of inflation expectations and relatively high real interest rates...

FOMC Chair Yellen on inflation and policy

Sep 25, 2015 00:58 am UTC| Commentary

Following on from the post-September FOMC meeting communications (which gave a great deal more weight to global conditions than had been expected), Chair Yellen turned the focus back to domestic issues overnight in an...