Central Bank Watch
Malaysia’s Overnight Policy Rate Kept at 2.75%
January 27, 2011
Policymakers at Bank Negara Malaysia retained a 2.75% key rate, its level for the past half-year. The Monetary Policy Committee doesn’t meet again until March 11. There were three rate hikes of 25 basis points each administered previously in March, May and July of 2010, but the Overnight Policy Rate remains 75 basis points below […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
S&P Downgrades Japanese Debt, Sending Yen Lower
January 27, 2011
The dollar climbed 0.8% against the yen, 0.7% versus the Australian dollar and 0.2% relative to the Canadian dollar but has lost 0.2% against the euro and Swissy and 0.3% relative to sterling. The dollar edged 0.1% against the kiwi and is flat against the yuan. Equities rose 1.6% in China, 0.9% in Thailand, 0.5% […] More
Central Bank Watch
New Zealand Monetary Policy Remains in Pause Mode
January 26, 2011
The official cash rate, which has been 3.0% since a second hike of 25 basis points in July 2010, was again left unchanged. The first hike of 25 bps was made in June 2010 from a cyclical low of 2.5% between April 2009 and that month. During the great recession, the cash rate was slashed […] More
Central Bank Watch
An Essentially Unchanged Statement
January 26, 2011
Even fewer changes were made to the January FOMC statement than had been introduced to the prior statement of December 14th. A modest upgrade had seemed plausible in the characterization of economic activity, but such wasn’t to be. One inconsequential modification was to substitute “improvement in labor market conditions” for “bring down unemployment” in the […] More
Central Bank Watch
FOMC
January 26, 2011
Some meetings of the FOMC attract tremendous prior attention. This has not been one of those although the first meeting of every year creates some uncertainty as four new reserve bank presidents take their place as voting members. Tom Hoenig of the Kansas City Fed was a voting member in 2010 and cast a dissent […] More
Central Bank Watch
Norway Monetary Policy Unchanged
January 26, 2011
The Norges Bank as expected, retained a 2.0% key interest rate level, same as since May 2010 for essentially the same reasons as given in December. Core inflation is running at about 1.5%, a percentage point less than the medium-term target. Other central bank rates have been low, and raising Norwegian rates could subject the […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Spotlight on Fed and Other Central Banks
January 26, 2011
The Federal Open Market Committee meets today for the first of eight scheduled dates in 2011. A statement at 19:15 GMT is not expected to modify policy. Minutes from the Bank of England’s January 12-13 meeting revealed a second dissenter in favor of raising the Bank Rate by 25 basis points and a majority somewhat […] More
Deeper Analysis
British GDP Growth
January 25, 2011
The U.K. economy contracted 0.5% (about 2.0% annualized) in the final quarter of 2010 following four straight quarters of post-recession expansion. Analysts had anticipated a 0.3-0.5% advance instead, down from 0.7% in 3Q and 1.1% in 2Q. Over those two quarters, GDP had risen at a robust annualized pace of 3.7%. Unseasonably bad weather depressed […] More
Central Bank Watch
A Seventh Rate Increase in India
January 25, 2011
The Reserve Bank of India today implemented another round of 25-basis point hikes in its key repo lending rate to 6.5% and its reverse repo borrowing rate to 5.5%. Officials also retained their 6.0% reserve requirement. Today’s action was influenced by an acceleration of WPI inflation to 8.43% in December from 7.48% in November, which […] More
Central Bank Watch
Bank of Japan Updates Forecasts and Leaves Key Rate Range at Zero-0.1%
January 25, 2011
Following five hours and 53 minutes of deliberations over two days, the BOJ’s Policy Board retained a 0.0-0.1% target range on overnight money rates in a unanimous 9-0 vote. The target had been eased in early October from a point estimate of 0.1% where such had been since December 2008. The overnight target has not […] More
