Central Bank Watch
Bank of England Preview: No Changes This Time
January 6, 2010
British monetary policy is on hold until at least February and possibly beyond midyear. The last base rate cut occurred in March 2009 and culminated 450 basis points of reduction from 5.0% to 0.5% squeezed into five months. Additional easing since then has been engineered via quantitative purchases of assets, mostly gilts, that will reach […] More
Deeper Analysis
Euro Area PMI-Services Advantage Versus United States Lessened in December
January 6, 2010
The U.S. services purchasing managers index climbed 1.4 points to 50.1 in December, largely on gains of 3.8 points in production and 2.4 points in jobs. Euroland’s comparable index increased just 0.6 points to 53.6, trimming the spread between the two series to minus 3.5 points from minus 4.3 points in November. In one important […] More
Central Bank Watch
Indonesian Central Bank Rate to Stay at 6.5%
January 6, 2010
Bank Indonesia retained a 6.5% key interest rate as expected after its first policy meeting of 2010. That was the same result as at the final four monthly meetings in 2009. The rate had been 9.5% until a 25-basis point reduction in December 2008, followed by cuts of 25 bps in January 2009, 50 bps […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Japanese Finance Minister Fujii Resigns
January 6, 2010
The yen weakened following news that FM Fujii resigned because of his ill health. Fujii had favored a strong exchange rate. Deputy Prime Minister Kan will assume the duties of finance minister. Aside from a 0.8% increase against the yen, the dollar is up 0.3% against the kiwi and 0.1% relative to the euro, unchanged […] More
