James Alexander via Historinhas | Yet again today we saw the “zero (long and variable) lags” in monetary policy. Central bankers moving markets and thus changing NGDP Expectations happens all the time. It’s perfectly rational too.
Indeed, the ECB can go further. Draghi broke the discipline again by skilfully taking advantage of a dull reference in the communiqué to the ECB’s intention to study all potential possibilities should the need arise.
Nick Malkoutzis via Macropolis | Bickering, confusion, delayed decisions on voting procedure, a temporary truce and a camper van: This is more or less the sum total of what the New Democracy leadership race has produced so far.
Markets are trying to glean any hint about whether or not the ECB will confirm additional stimulus during its monthly meeting today. Most analysts forecast a QE reinforcement in quantity, as well as in term, before year-end or in 2016. But there is also a minority who bet on the central bank just adding corporate debt to the cocktail.
Iceland, as any other country, needs investment, i.a. in infrastructure and that will partly have to be financed by foreign loans. So who is then left to finance it? The Chinese, as the British government is so enthusiastic about.
France has become the Sweden of the 1970s. Both right and left governments have allowed public spending in France, as a proportion of GDP, to exceed that of Sweden at its most critical period.
Fernando Barciela | The central bank has put QE in place, a trillion euros asset purchase programme, but inflation has returned to negative territory. Has the ECB’s strategy failed? Are critics right when they say it does too little, too late.
Although starting from a low base, credit in the Eurozone is gradually and consistently improving in line with the modest recovery in activity. In August, credit to companies and households grew 0.8% year-on-year compared with the 1.6% decline registered a year earlier.
The indicators on credit risk are showing clear signs of improvement. The NPL ratio for the whole of the banking system fell to 11.0% in June (vs 12.5% in December 2014), the lowest level since April 2013.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ‘open door’ refugee policy could cost her her job as well as cause an unwanted shift to the right in Germany.