Central Bank Watch
Central Bank of Colombia
March 24, 2017
A statement has been released after the third 25-basis point reduction of Colombia’s benchmark interest rate in four months. The rate becomes 7.0%, lowest since last May. From April 2014 until July 2016, 15 25-basis point interest rate hikes were engineered by monetary authorities. While inflation of 5.2% in February was higher than the 3% […] More
Foreign Exchange Insights and Next Week
Next Week
March 24, 2017
Central Banks: Interest rate meetings in South Africa, the Czech Republic, Romania, Czech Republic, Mexico and Thailand. BOJ releases summary of mid-March Board meeting. Fed officials scheduled to speak publicly include Kaplan, Evans, Williams, George, and Rosengren. Other monetary policymakers speaking in public are Governor Zhou of the People’s Republic of China, Governor Poloz of […] More
Central Bank Watch
Bank of Russia Cuts Key Interest Rate to 9.75%
March 24, 2017
Having previously cut its interest rate by six percentage points during the first seven months of 2015 and by an additional 50 basis points each in June and September of last year, most analysts were not anticipating further easing at this time. A released statement concedes that inflation risks “remain elevated.” Nonetheless, the ruble has […] More
Central Bank Watch
Central Bank of Sri Lanka Raises Deposit and Lending Rates by 25 Basis Points
March 24, 2017
This third round of tightening was smaller in size (25 basis points) than the incremental increases of 50 basis points each in February and July of 2016. The Standing Deposit and Standing Lending Rates now become 7.25% and 8.75%, the cumulative 125 basis point hike since last July reverses more than half of the previous […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
House Vote, Some PMI Results, and Divergent Interest Rate Moves
March 24, 2017
It’s deja vu this Friday. The repeal and replace vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to replace the ACA with the Republican Insurance Policy, which was scheduled for Thursday, is to happen instead today. President Trump wants no more negotiations on this. The result looms as a huge test of the new president’s ability […] More
