Deeper Analysis
Federal Reserve Manages to Communicate a Comforting Message as a New Policy Chapter Begins
December 16, 2015
The Federal Open Market Committee released a statement confirming the universally held belief that the federal funds rate would be raised by 25 basis points and that the balance sheet of the central bank would not be squeezed just yet. The statement was accompanied by fresh forecasts going out to 2018 that were modified only […] More
Central Bank Watch
Bank of Thailand
December 16, 2015
The monetary policy rate in Thailand was left unchanged at 1.5% by a unanimous vote of policymakers. Such was reduced six times between November 2011 and March 2014 by a total of 150 basis points to 2.0%. In 2015, two additional reductions of 25 basis points were implemented in March and April. The tone of […] More
Central Bank Watch
Czech National Bank Policy Left Unchanged
December 16, 2015
A statement released after the final Czech monetary policy meeting of 2015 confirmed the policy settings remain as is. The interest rate structure since November 2012 has been 0.05% for the two-week repo rate and discount rate, and the Lombard rate has been 0.25%. Since November 2013, intervention has been utilized to enforce an asymmetric […] More
Uncategorized
FOMC Preview
December 16, 2015
The FOMC last met October 28 and and released this statement afterword. Strong rhetorical hints have then and subsequently been made that the federal funds rate will be raised to 0.50% at today’s meeting. The decision will be accompanied be new forecasts and followed by a press conference starting at 19:30 GMT. The table below […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
A Day to Remember
December 16, 2015
The Federal Open Market Committee is expected to raise the federal funds rate later today. Such will be the first increase since a hike to 5.25% from 5.0% in June 2006 ended a sequence of 17 straight meetings in which the key policy rate was lifted by 25 basis points. The main uncertainty to be learned […] More
