Central Bank Watch
Czech National Bank Reduces Two-Week Repo Rate to 1.0%
March 26, 2020
Ten days after an inter-meeting 50-basis point rate reduction on March 16, Czech National Bank officials at today’s scheduled meeting authorized a further 75-basis point rate cut, declaring in a released statement that the Czech economy likely faces a strong domestic recession for most of the rest of 2020 and that such will likely exert […] More
Central Bank Watch
Czech National Bank Officials Ready to Ease More If Necessary
March 26, 2020
At an intermeeting meeting of the CNB Governing Board on March 16 reduced the two-week repo rate to 1.75% from 2.25%. Minutes of that meeting include forward guidance that further monetary relief may be undertaken. The Board agreed on the need to lower the CNB’s key interest rates and thereby ease the monetary conditions beyond […] More
Central Bank Watch
Bank of England’s Scheduled Policy Review Today Didn’t Augment Steps Taken Earlier in the Month
March 26, 2020
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee had lowered the bank rate from 0.75% to 0.25% on March 11 and by a further 15 basis points to 0.10%, a record low, on March 19. Officials also had lifted the ceiling on the purchases of gilt securities and corporate bonds to GBP 645 billion and had […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Shocking Leap in U.S. Jobless Insurance Claims Steals the Spotlight
March 26, 2020
From the outset of this week, the most feared data release was today’s report on new jobless insurance claims for the week ending March 21, which was going to capture the impact of broad business lockdowns to combat the spreading Covid-19 pandemic. New claims had averaged 251k during the four weeks through March 14, and […] More
