A monetary easing bias remains in place in New Zealand
Sep 30, 2015 23:27 pm UTC| Commentary Central Banks
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) reduced the benchmark overnight cash rate by 25 basis points (bps) in September following two equivalent cuts in June and July, taking the key rate to 2.75%. Inflationary pressures...
BCB likely to go for a 50bp rate cut in 2016
Sep 30, 2015 03:40 am UTC| Commentary Central Banks
There has been no substantial change in the macro economy since earlier this month. However, the sharp deterioration in financial conditions, amid mounting domestic political and legislative concerns and the poor...
Reserve Bank of India surprises with a 50bps cut
Sep 30, 2015 02:15 am UTC| Commentary Central Banks
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) surprisedwith a 50bps cut in the Repo rate to 6.75% on Tuesday vs expectations of a 25bps reduction. This bunched-up move was likely driven by three reasons: a) comfort with the evolving...
More QE not as simple as it sounds for ECB
Sep 29, 2015 12:31 pm UTC| Commentary Central Banks
In relative terms, the ECBs current quantitative easing programme appears modest. Whilst the BoJs total asset purchases equate to 64% of GDP, and the Feds 25%, current asset purchases in the Eurozone amount to around 11%...
Weak pass-through of RBI policy rate cut remains a concern
Sep 29, 2015 04:52 am UTC| Commentary Central Banks
The pass-through of RBI policy rate cuts to bank lending rates remains fairly weak. So far, the average pass-through has been barely 30bp in response to 75bp of rate cuts by the RBI. Recently, HDFC Bank announced an...
Chinese Reminbi regime change, US fiscal standoff
Sep 29, 2015 03:42 am UTC| Commentary Central Banks
There are two specific political/policy uncertainties which could serve as another deterrent for the Fed, even if the data evolves as expected. In China, the uncertainty around the RMB is an important risk factor. PBoC is...
China's growth outlook likely supports Fed 's December lift-off
Sep 29, 2015 03:28 am UTC| Commentary Central Banks
When the reliability of Chinese indicators is qustioned to Fed, a 2013 Economic Letter from the San Francisco Fed1 compared the official GDP data with several alternative indicators constructed from high-frequency data...
Johannesburg in a time of darkness: Ivan Vladislavić’s new memoir reminds us of the city’s fragility
Economist Chris Richardson on an ‘ugly’ inflation result and the coming budget
IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects