Central Bank Watch
Central Bank of Russia Hikes Interest Rate Further
July 23, 2021
The Central Bank of Russia’s policy interest rates was raised today for a full percentage point to 6.5%, which more than reversed last year’s entire easing from 6.25% to 4.25%. Along with increases of 25 basis points in March, 50 bps in April, 75 bps in May and 50 bps in June, the Russian central […] More
Ukraine’s Third Interest Rate Hike of 2021
July 22, 2021
The National Bank of Ukraine delivered a surprise, lifting its policy interest rate by another 50 basis points. There had been earlier increases this year of 50 basis points in March and 100 basis points in April. In contrast, four big reductions in 2020 had reduced the rate from 12.5% to 6.0%. Core inflation has […] More
ECB Changes Forward Policy Guidance
July 22, 2021
At today’s scheduled European Central Bank Governing Council meeting, news was made even though the interest rate structure (a zero percent refinancing rate of zero percent since September 2 the quantitative stimulus. A change in expressed guidance over what to expect from the bank’s policy in the future, officials now say that interest rates will […] More
Bank of Japan Policy Review
July 16, 2021
The Bank of Japan’s policy settings will remain at -0.1% on the short-term interest rate, around zero percent on the 10-year JGB yield to be maintained by purchasing “a necessary amount of Japanese government bonds (JGBs) without setting an upper limit.” Policy Board member Kataoka dissented in favor of augmenting policy stimulus, as he has […] More
Further Scale-Back of Canadian Bond Buying by Bank of Canada
July 14, 2021
The central bank’s Governing Council kept the overnight rate target at 0.25% and indicated in its statement that such is unlikely to be raised until sometime in the second half of 2022. But the weekly pace of government bond purchases was reduced by a billion Canadian dollars to C$ 2 billion. Such had been cut […] More
New Zealand Monetary Authorities to Stop an Asset Buying Program
July 14, 2021
The U.S. dollar’s most significant movement overnight has been a 1.0% decline against the New Zealand dollar, which rose following an initial tapering of monetary policy stimulus announced by the Monetary Policy Committee of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. A released statement after a scheduled policy review, opined that, in the absence of any […] More
Reserve Bank of Australia
July 6, 2021
The Reserve Bank of Australia from November will reduced weekly bond purchases from A$ 5 billion currently to A$ 4 billion, and said in a released statement following today’s policy review that “the central scenario remains that the condition for a lift in the cash rate will not be met until 2024.” Forward guidance in […] More
Bank of Mexico Reverses Rate Cut Done Four Months Ago
June 24, 2021
Mexico’s overnight interbank rate target had undergone six reductions totaling three percentage points in 2020 from 7.25% to 4.25%, and that easing cycle was culminated by a 25 basis point in February this year. Mexican real GDP had imploded 8.25% last year and experienced an eighth consecutive year-on-year drop last quarter, that time by 3.6%. […] More
Czech National Bank Raises Policy Interest Rate
June 23, 2021
Officials at the Czech National Bank doubled their 2-week repo rate to 0.50%, marking its first hike in 16 months. 2020 had begun with an ill-timed 25-basis point hike in February, just before the pandemic hit. That move was quickly reversed with a pair of cuts totaling 125 basis points in March and an additional […] More
30-Basis Point Hike in Hungary’s Central Bank Base Rate
June 22, 2021
Today’s rate hike at the National Bank of Hungary from 0.60% to 0.90% reverses a pair of 15-basis point reductions in June and July of 2020 and represents the first increase since a 50 basis point move to 7.0% in December 2011. The backdrop to today’s action is inflation (now 5.1%) that is above the […] More
