Search Results for US monetary policy

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Draghi is in trouble: credit still doesn’t flow in the periphery

MADRID | By Francisco López | The ECB President announced with fanfare last month a battery of measures to revive the credit in the EZ. The problem is that the open bar announced by Draghi won’t have an impact on loans until 2015 and, meanwhile, credit fall continues to accelerate in some peripheral countries, especially in Spain and Italy. There are those who believe that the latest data could force Mr Draghi to approve a direct debt purchase program before year’s end. 


Wall Street

Fed tapering: Doubts resurface again

MADRID | JP Marín Arrese | The revised growth figure for the US economy in Q1 comes as a nasty surprise. It has dampened market sentiment worldwide. Earlier assessments blaming bad weather the moderate setback no longer hold when faced with a downturn close to 3%. Even discarding a fallback into full-fledged recession, it undoubtedly points to a markedly weaker performance than expected. The Fed tapering strategy is confronted with a baffling dilemma.


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ECB – Most likely done now

ZURICH | By UBS analysts | On 5 June, the ECB delivered a comprehensive monetary policy package, comprising cuts in the refi rate (from 0.25% to 0.15%), the deposit rate (from zero to -0.1%) and the marginal lending facility (from 0.75% to 0.4%). The ECB also rolled out the ‘full allotment mode’ – the commitment to supply unlimited liquidity (against adequate collateral) at the refi rate – from July 2015 to December 2016, and it will inject liquidity by ending the sterilisation of the Securities Markets Programme (SMP) portfolio. 


Global growth

The world’s disappointing recovery

SINGAPORE/LONDON | By UBS analysts | Global growth has disappointed in the first half of this year. As a result, we have steadily marked down our forecasts for 2014. We now forecast global growth of 3.0% in 2014 and 3.3% in 2015 after 2.5% in 2013. At the turn of the year we forecasted 3.4% global growth for 2014 and 2015.


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European recovery on track, but moderate and uneven

ZURICH | By UBS analysts | The economic recovery in the Eurozone remains on track, but Q1 GDP data have once again shown the slow pace of growth and wide discrepancies that exist between individual economies. We cut our 2014 Eurozone growth forecast to 1.0% (from 1.1%) and continue to project 1.5% growth for 2015. Nominal GDP growth is expected to pick up to 1.7% this year and 2.7% in 2015, but nonetheless, it remains much slower than would be desirable to accelerate debt deleveraging


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Asked for wider liberalization, many Germans don’t see more room for it

BERLIN | By Alberto Lozano | Although when speaking of reforms nobody is pointing to Germany, international organizations are pushing for it in the country, especially in the services sector. The goals are boosting consumption and rebalancing the euro monetary union, and higher productivity in services sector becomes a challenge with large potential gains for both Germany and the whole Eurozone. But some voices insist this won’t easily happen. 

 


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Stage two of the Japan macro trade

LONDON | By Barclays analysts | The Japan macro trade has been off the radar in 2014, but that should change (for better or worse) in the coming few months. US yields have likely bottomed, while the effect of Japan’s VAT increase appearsmanageable. More important, PM Abe has unveiled more details of his 3rd Arrow (the structuralreform program), including a long-anticipated cut in the corporate tax rate.


Germany's toll road

IMF: More German investment to strengthen the EZ

BERLIN | By Alberto Lozano | The ECB and ‘peripheral’ countries cannot do all the work by themselves. The eurozone needs to move away from deflation and to emerge definitely from recession with a sustainable growth. As the International Monetary Fund recently concluded about Germany, the EU biggest economy could “strengthen its role as an anchor of regional stability.” But could more investment in Germany have a real impact in their neighbour’s economies?


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Let’s hope Alan Krueger is wrong and Janet Yellen right

WASHINGTON | By Pablo Pardo | Maybe central banks and market participants are giving too much weight to the unemployment rate when trying to gauge future inflation. Instead, they should look at the short-term unemployment rate, because the long-term unemployed risk becoming economic pariahs. 


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TLTRO: An X-Ray

MADRID | By Carlos Díaz Güell | Last week’s greatest news for SMEs were the Targeted Long Term Refinancing Operations (TLTRO), variety of LTROs that got a T standing for target. Banks will be allowed to borrow money at 0.25% interest rate at 4 years max.