China’s commodity import data still distorted by holidays

Mar 09, 2015 12:58 pm UTC| Commentary

Chinas commodity import volumes fell in February but this was hardly surprising given the long midmonth holiday.Chinas total import bill fell by 20.5% y/y in February, after a similar 19.7% decline in January, mainly due...

China's local government takes on debt restructuring plan

Mar 09, 2015 12:46 pm UTC| Commentary

The Finance Minister Lou Jiweis press conference at the National Peoples Congress meeting provided important clues on how the stock of local government debt will be restructured.One element of the plan under consideration...

Turkish central bank takes action to prop up the lira

Mar 09, 2015 12:44 pm UTC| Commentary

This morning the Turkish central bank (TCMB) cut rates on foreign currency deposits. The bank cut its 1-week deposit rate on USD-deposits to 4.5% from 7.5% and to 2.5% from 6.5% on EUR-deposits.The TCMB cited the global...

Hard-currency bonds dominate EM bond inflows

Mar 09, 2015 12:43 pm UTC| Commentary

Inflows into dedicated EM bond funds were again strong in the week ending 4 March, with now close to USD 3.0bn flowing into EM bond bunds in the last five weeks.Total inflows in the week ending 4 March were USD 697mn,...

Cross-border payments and FX turnover- strong contributors to the RGI in January

Mar 09, 2015 12:33 pm UTC| Commentary

Renminbi-denominated cross-border SWIFT payments remained the top contributor to the RGI in January, accounting for 0.98ppt of the indexs 2.3% m/m rise. FX turnover was a close second.Standard Chartered notes as follows on...

U.S. retail sales expected to rise for first time in three months

Mar 09, 2015 12:31 pm UTC| Commentary

A price-induced increase in gasoline service station revenues, combined with an anticipated acceleration in control purchases, probably propelled retail and food services sales 0.5% higher in February, reversing almost one...

U.S. Feb import prices on downtrend

Mar 09, 2015 12:30 pm UTC| Commentary

Foreign product quotes probably fell by another full percentage point last month, boosting the cumulative falloff since last June to 10.4%.In contrast to the petroleum-led reductions posted over the preceding seven months,...