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The drastic measures which governments across the world have taken so far to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus have few precedents outside of war times and therefore quantifying their economic, financial and social impact remains challenging. However, there is little doubt that economic activity in China, the epicentre of the epidemic, has slowed sharply. Disruptions and delays to international
Read moreIn reaction to the coronavirus epidemic governments across the world have enacted measures unprecedented in recent decades, including closing national borders, setting up quarantine zones, restricting travel and closing factories and schools. Economic activity in China has slowed sharply and disruptions to international supply chains are impacting global trade and production with the slump in tourism heaping further pressure on
Read moreThe pace of central bank policy rate cuts has slowed sharply in the past few months (see Figure 1), in line with our view (see Early Christmas for (still weak) global growth, 11th December 2019). While the emerging market central bank policy rate has fallen a further 20bp since late-October to a multi-decade low of just 4.55%, the developed economy
Read moreThis report updates the monthly seasonal patterns of 32 major Nominal Effective Exchange Rates (NEERs) going back to May 2010, using over 90,000 daily data points with trade-weights derived from the BIS (April 2019) and national central banks (see Nominal Effective Exchange Rates: Monthly seasonal patterns, 10 January 2019). A number of factors can drive currency seasonality, including underlying seasonal
Read moreGlobal FX volatility has fallen further in the past month to its lowest level since September 2014 according to our estimate (see Figure 1). Volatility in most major currencies has either fallen or only increased marginally in the past month and is now very low relative to the past 12 months. Sterling, the Brazilian Real and Turkish Lira have recorded
Read moreWe noted in “Renminbi depreciation true to form” (6 June 2019) that history was repeating itself, with the Renminbi NEER having weakened in April-June as it had done in May-July 2018, albeit at a more modest pace (see figure 1). This was a clear indication in our view that “Chinese policy-makers were once again using Renminbi depreciation as both a
Read moreThe Korean Won Nominal Effective Exchange Rate has appreciated 4.7% since the 41-month low recorded on 12th August to a six-month high, with the Won up against the currencies of Korea’s largest trading partners, namely the Yen, Euro, Renminbi and Dollar. A common view is that, with China accounting for about a third of Korea’s total trade, day-to-day speculative flows
Read moreWe noted in “Renminbi depreciation – Case of déjà vu” (16 May 2019) that the Renminbi’s performance since early March had been very similar to that of May-June 2018 and that if, as we expected, history was to repeat itself the Renminbi would weaken further. While the Renminbi Nominal Effective Exchange Rate was broadly stable between 16th and 30th May,
Read moreThe Renminbi Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER), which had appreciated 3.5% in the two months up to 5 March 2019 and then traded in a narrow 1% range in the following two months, has since 2 May depreciated 2.1% to its weakest level since 25th January. This is broadly line with our view that “the PBoC could conceivably slow or
Read moreThe ongoing trade war between the US and China undoubtedly contributed to the slowdown in Chinese GDP growth to a nine-year low of 6.4% yoy in Q4 and (re)ignited concerns that China is in trouble. However, this slowdown needs to be put in context. For starters, this gradual downturn in Chinese GDP growth is probably a reasonably accurate reflection of
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