Central Bank Watch
A Fifth Peruvian Central Bank Rate Hike
September 10, 2010
The Central Reserve Bank of Peru’s policy interest rate was lifted by 50 basis points to 3.0% as expected. Five straight monthly increases total 175 bps, reversing a third of the cumulative reductions during February-August 2009. Peru experienced sizzling economic growth of 8% in the first half of 2010. While CPI inflation of 2.3% lies […] More
Foreign Exchange Insights and Next Week
Next Week
September 10, 2010
A full week lies ahead. This is the week that China releases most of its monthly data, and speculation has arisen that China’s central bank will engineer its first rate hike of the cycle. Scheduled central bank interest rate meetings will be held in India, Switzerland, Chile, New Zealand and Turkey. Policy meeting minutes will […] More
Foreign Exchange Insights and Next Week
Strength of Commodity Currencies Belies High Concern about Global Growth
September 10, 2010
Many major currency relationships have been tightly confined lately. The yen got a boost when Chinese officials unhinged the yuan from the dollar in mid-June, even though many weeks passed with China’s currency acting as if it were still pegged to the greenback. With an eye toward diversification, the Chinese have become bigger and steadier […] More
Deeper Analysis
Labor Market Better in Canada than the United States
September 10, 2010
Canadian employment rose 35.8K last month, which is the same percentage increase as a 271K gain in the U.S. labor market. U.S. jobs contracted by 54K for a second straight time in August, by comparison. Over the past five months, Canadian jobs expanded at a 3.6% annualized rate, three times as fast as the increase […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Focus on China, Japan, and European Banks
September 10, 2010
China’s yuan advanced another 0.2%; its 0.5% gain against the dollar this week was the largest since the first week of Beijing’s more flexible policy was announced in mid-June. Trade figures released in Beijing today showed a smaller-than-forecast $20.03 billion surplus in August. July’s $28.73 billion surplus had been the widest since January 2009. August […] More
