Tag Archives: Global Economics

Tradespotting: Choose protectionism. Choose higher inflation. Choose weaker trade and growth

The future of global trade, which has slowed despite a pick-up in global GDP growth, is hogging the headlines, with the spotlight on both the US and UK.

US President Trump and his team have so far focused on (1) substituting US imports for domestic production, with Trump adopting a carrot-and-stick approach (2) trade in goods, particularly manufactured goods and (3) trade with China and regional trading partners and in particular Mexico.

There is in theory nothing irrational in President Trump wanting to boost domestic production and exports, narrow the $500bn trade deficit and spur US employment.

However, his current approach may in practise fall well short of delivering the improvement in US trade and jobs which he seeks. In a more extreme scenario, his tactics could at least in the near-term lead to higher US inflation and weaker trade, creating headwinds for both the US and global economy.

The high-labour cost US economy should be looking to better compete with the likes of Germany, not China. But the quality and desirability of exports matters.

The Dollar’s strength, over which the Trump administration has little or no control, will likely continue to weigh on the overall competitiveness of US exports while at the same time fuelling cheap US imports.

A stronger Renminbi is not the solution as exporting nations other than the US may be better positioned to capitalise on such a relative-price change, while the USD-cost of imports from China may rise.

If the US imposed higher tariffs on imports from China and other countries (such as Mexico), it would take time for US-based companies to boost production given insufficient quality and capacity in US manufacturing.

Moreover, China and other exporting nations such as Mexico and Canada may respond to higher US import tariffs by increasing their tariffs on imports from the US. This would put US exporters at a clear disadvantage vis-à-vis other exporting nations. Read more

Market fatigue in the face of catastrophic success

The relative stability in the Dollar, S&P 500 and US yields is broadly in line with my view that analysts and markets had got ahead of themselves with respect to the path of the US economy and financial markets.

Moreover, Chinese policy makers’ willingness and ability to use central bank FX reserves to support the Renminbi tallies with my expectation that “near-term, the PBoC may continue to see some value in a broadly stable Renminbi.”

Currency, equity and bond markets may also be suffering from “political-fatigue”, with Donald Trump’s “policy-by-tweets” exhibiting diminishing returns.

Expectations that Trump will have to deliver a more cohesive set of policy priorities will likely rise exponentially after his inauguration as President today. If he is unwilling or unable, markets’ good-will may flounder and the Dollar and US equities may correct lower.

In the UK, Theresa May’s speech was an important milestone in the UK’s already tortuous path towards a world outside the EU. But there are still many legal, political and economic hurdles the government must clear, including a number of parliamentary votes.

Given the uncertain path which British executive and legislative bodies will take to reach a difficult-to-predict outcome at a still unidentifiable point in the future, fluctuations in Sterling will likely remain common-place.

I see the risk tilted towards Sterling weakness due to the British government’s acute challenge of negotiating favourable trade deals with EU and non-EU countries and the UK economy’s reliance on faltering household consumption growth.
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Hawkish pendulum may have swung too far

I have long argued that the risk of a collapse in global economic growth and inflation was over-stated and more recently that major central banks had likely reached an important inflexion point.

A global recession and global deflation have seemingly been averted and central bank policy rate cuts and extensions of quantitative easing programs have become rarer occurrences.

Donald Trump’s election has turbo-charged expectations that reflationary US-centric policies will drive global, and in particular US growth and inflation in 2017, that the Fed’s hiking cycle will step up a gear and that US yields and equities and the dollar will climb further, heaping pressure on emerging economies and asset prices.

But analysts and markets may now be getting ahead of themselves.

My core reasoning is that US inflation may not rise as fast expected, due to lags in the implementation of Trump’s planned fiscal policy loosening and immigration curbs, residual slack in the US labour market and disinflationary impact of higher US yields and a stronger dollar.

As a result, the FOMC, which will see important personnel changes in early 2017, may argue that the market has already done some its work and not be as hawkish as expected.

In this scenario, US short-end rates could lose ground while long-end rates continue to push higher, resulting in a steepening of a still not very steep US rates curve.

One corollary is that factors which have wakened the euro may lose traction as 2017 progresses.

 

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What will Asian central banks do?

Global risk appetite nudges higher as “West Wing” versus “Yes Minister” plays out

Cinemagoers have in recent years been treated to the daft yet watchable Alien vs Predator and Superman vs Batman movie franchises but nothing compares to the Frankenstein-esque beasts of US and UK politics which have been thrust on voters both sides of the pond – a tragi-comic blend of “the West Wing” versus “Yes Minister” with more twists and sub-plots than a John le Carré novel. Read more

Global Central Bank Easing Nearing Important Inflexion Point

Recent comments from the Fed, ECB and BoJ have rattled financial markets after a summer of relatively low volatility.

The correction in financial markets has so far been relatively modest, particularly for equities and the dollar. But the questions remain where global monetary policy goes from here, the implications for asset valuations and ultimately whether elevated global risk appetite will correct more forcefully.

My core view is that eight years of ultra-low (and in some cases negative) central bank policy rates and expansive bond-buying programs have helped stabilise global growth and inflation, albeit at low levels.

At the same time, the costs of ultra-loose monetary policy, including asset price bubbles, distortions in bond markets, pressure on the banking sector and even rising inequality, may be starting to outweigh the benefits.

Therefore, major central banks, with the exception of the BoJ, may refrain from loosening monetary policy further near-term.

I would certainly expect central bank policy rate cuts to become increasingly less frequent than in the past and the ECB and BoE to keep the modalities of their current QE programs broadly unchanged for now.

At the very least, the world’s most influential central bankers may going forward tweak a discourse which has in recent years largely focused on doing “whatever it takes”.

To be clear, the risk near-term remains biased towards more central bank monetary policy easing. Bar the Fed and possibly a handful of EM central banks still fighting weak currencies and high inflation, no major central bank is likely to hike policy rates or tighten monetary policy this year, in my view. That’s a story for 2017, at the earliest.

But if we have indeed reached an inflection point in global central bank monetary policy, if anything financial markets will become more sensitive to any downturns in still tepid global growth and inflation and to the negative side-effects of loose monetary policy.

In this context higher volatility is likely to prevail and global risk appetite may struggle to forcefully regain traction for now. Read more

It’s oh so quiet…for now

Frequent u-turns in the Fed’s policy stance, central banks’ lack of monetary policy credibility, currency wars and gyrations in macro data are being blamed for financial market volatility and record lows in government bond yields. The forthcoming EU referendum has also buffeted UK financial markets.

But on the whole, financial markets and macro data have since 1 April showed a far greater degree of stability than in preceding quarters.

US interest rate, equity and currency markets have weathered the gyrations in the Fed’s policy stance and the ebbs and flows in US data. German and Japanese government bond yields have fallen but ultimately been less volatile than in Q1. The World Equity Index has also been constrained in a reasonably narrow range, thanks at least in part to signs that global GDP growth stabilised in Q1.

This relative stability has not been confined to the dollar. So far, Q2 2016 has been the least volatile quarter since January 2015 – as defined by the low-high range using daily data – for most major nominal effective exchange rates (NEERs). These include developed and EM currencies, as well as commodity and non-commodity currencies. Among G7 currencies, the euro NEER has been particularly stable in a 2.1% range.

The picture is also one of relative calm in emerging markets, with the pick-up in foreign capital inflows in April and June and in commodity prices since March helping to stabilise EM currencies without central banks having to draw on still significant FX reserves.

Commodity prices, including crude oil, have risen sharply so far in Q2 but their volatility has remained in line with historical standards, particularly in recent weeks. This has contributed to greater stability in commodity currencies, with the exception of the Australian dollar.

If anything, this lack of directionality has forced financial market players to be light-footed and adopt short-term tactical strategies. The question now is whether this relative calm is here to stay or whether it augurs more violent corrections as was the case earlier this year.

The UK referendum on EU accession has the potential to be far more destabilising to financial markets than the BoJ’s policy meeting on 16 June and in particular the Fed’s meeting the day before. While UK markets would likely feel the brunt of a decision to leave the EU, the euro would also likely weaken and global equity markets conceivably sell off.

The Fed’s policy meeting on 27th July could also prove disruptive at a time of potentially reduced summer-liquidity. Read more

Global growth – Down but not out

While equity and commodity markets have recovered, it is an almost consensus view that already tepid global economic growth in H2 2015 likely weakened furthered in Q3 and shows few signs of recovering near-term,

Governments, lacking in both leadership and fiscal-reflation headroom, have passed the buck to central banks struggling to hit multiple growth, inflation and financial stability targets.

However, talk of global recession let alone economic collapse is somewhat overdone and I reiterate my long-held view that the global growth story is a cause for concern, not panic (17 December 2014).

Global GDP growth has been mediocre but pretty stable in the past three years at around 2.4 and 3.2%, according to respectively World Bank and IMF estimates, so perhaps it is the expectation of a return to pre-2008 growth rates which is unfounded.

International institutions have revised down their global GDP growth forecasts for 2015 but history suggests that the IMF’s 2015 forecast of 3.1% growth may prove a tad too pessimistic.

The focus on China’s ill-defined “hard-landing” and “true” growth rate has obscured the fact that growth in US, still the world’s largest economy, is back to its long-term average. 

Finally, while policy-makers are running out of tools to spur their economies, a number of emerging market central banks, including in China and India, still have room to cut policy rates further.

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Deflation, what deflation?

Four themes have hogged the headlines this year – Greece, China, the Fed and linking these three topics…the risk of deflation and associated damage to the global economy.

At the risk of over-simplifying a complex picture, what is striking is that global headline and core inflation have actually been pretty well behaved (see Figure 1). Further analysis shows that headline and core inflation have evolved in reasonably narrow ranges since early 2013 in the world’s largest developed economies as well as China and Mexico. The fact these inflation data series are a little boring is in itself noteworthy given that central banks typically favour low and stable inflation. Read more

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