Foreign Exchange Insights and Next Week
Currency Wars
May 9, 2013
Two themes are dominating currency market life. One is disinflation. A funny thing happened on the way to the widely predicted explosion of inflation that market players feared would be the result of fiscal deficit spending and rapid growth in central bank balance sheets. Inflation rates have instead decelerated and been negative in a few […] More
Central Bank Watch
Bank Negara Malaysia: Again No Rate Change
May 9, 2013
Malaysia’s overnight policy interest rate has been at 3.0% since the last of four 25-basis point hikes in May 2011, which had followed similar moves in March, May and July of 2010. Today’s was the twelfth subsequent meeting to end with a vote to keep the status quo, which according to a released statement is […] More
Central Bank Watch
Bank of Korea
May 9, 2013
The first interest rate cut in seven months has been implemented in South Korea in response to continuing “weak” Korean economic growth and “low” prospects for inflation. On growth, officials remarked “the domestic economy will show a negative output gap for a considerable time, due mostly to the slow recovery of the global economy, to […] More
Central Bank Watch
No Changes from the Bank of England
May 9, 2013
The Monetary Policy Committee released a statement confirming decisions to keep the Bank Rate at 0.5% and the Asset Purchase Program’s limit at GBP 375 billion. The interest rate has been at 0.5% since March 2009, and the last change of the APP was made in July 2012. A quarterly Inflation Report from the central […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Stronger Aussie and New Zealand Dollars
May 9, 2013
Rises of 0.9% in the kiwi and 0.6% in the Australian dollars versus the greenback were inspired by better than expected labor statistics in those economies. Australian employment jumped 50.1K in April, easily reversing a 31.2K decline in March and forecasts of a 12-15K recovery. The Aussie unemployment rate eased back to 5.5%, and labor […] More
