Foreign Exchange Insights and Next Week
One Way or Another
May 21, 2014
The euro zone economy is in desperate need of a weaker exchange rate. No surer remedy exists for halting regional disinflation in a timely enough fashion and for ensuring against sliding long-term inflation expectations amid actual inflation that is substantially below target. The euro’s level is not an impediment to engineered depreciation. It’s birth value […] More
Central Bank Watch
FOMC Minutes
May 21, 2014
Released minutes from the April 29-30th meeting read dovishly and reveal No inclination to begin raising the federal funds rate for at least 4-5 more quarters. Satisfaction that maintaining the present accommodative policy will create a conflict between the Fed’s inflation and employment mandates for quite some time longer. No substantial changes since the prior […] More
Central Bank Watch
Central Bank of Iceland
May 21, 2014
Officials left the one-week collateralized central bank lending rate unchanged at 6.0% for the twelfth policy meeting in a row dating back to December 2012. The last change, a 25-basis point hike in November 2012, culminated a six-step tightening begun in August 2011 from a base of 4.5%. In a released statement, officials said the […] More
Central Bank Watch
Bank of Japan Policy Decision: Steady as She Goes
May 21, 2014
Governor Kuroda and is eight fellow board members were on more solid ground when they met this month and chose not to change the stimulative qualitative and quantitative monetary policy that was launched in April 2013 but not modified since then. First-quarter GDP growth of 5.9% annualized far exceeded expectations, and indications of April activity, […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Four Central Banks in the Spotlight
May 21, 2014
Minutes from the Bank of England’s meeting on May 7-8 revealed an increasing inclination by some members of the Monetary Policy Committee to entertain the thought of starting to raise interest rates, but the vote against doing so at that meeting remained unanimous. The debate is focused on determining how much slack remains in the […] More
