RBA rate decision review

Oct 06, 2015 09:06 am UTC| Insights & Views Central Banks

Reserve bank of Australia (RBA), chose to keep policy rates on hold, in spite of continued weakness in the economy arising from commodity shock and slower import demand from China for Australias hard commodities such as...

RBA’s lift-off will be tougher than the Fed’s

Oct 05, 2015 22:36 pm UTC| Commentary Central Banks

The US Federal Reserve has been extraordinarily transparent in its intention to lift interest rates at some point this year. It also has been extraordinarily cautious. Recent concerns about financial market volatility and...

Chile central bank debating when to tighten policy

Oct 05, 2015 21:34 pm UTC| Commentary Central Banks

The BCCh minutes indicates a hike is coming. The minutes from the September meeting, suggests a split decision: three board members voted to stay on hold while one board member voted for a 25bp rate increase. Clearly, the...

China’s FX reserves likely dropped to $3.5trn

Oct 05, 2015 21:19 pm UTC| Commentary Central Banks

Chinas FX reserves likely dropped by $57bn in September to $3.50trn, compared with a $94bn decline in August. Since there was little change in major currency valuations vs the USD, the estimated decline implies $55bn of FX...

Can weak US data provide sustained support to EM and commodity currencies like during the QE era?

Oct 05, 2015 17:45 pm UTC| Commentary Central Banks

Stocks and EM FX rallied after the worse-than-expected NFP. The market seems to be taking comfort in the likelihood that the slowdown of the US labor market could keep the Fed on hold for even longer. The fact is that...

RBA to stand pat in Oct policy meet, weakness expected in exchange rate

Oct 05, 2015 11:19 am UTC| Insights & Views Central Banks

Australias current cash rate stands at a record low of just 2 percent after the RBA slashed rates by 25 basis points, or 0.25 per cent, in both February and May this year. Market and most analysts believe interest rates...

Policy on hold, but the RBA may tweak its views on the global economy

Oct 04, 2015 21:03 pm UTC| Commentary Central Banks

The RBA (Tuesday) is expected to keep the cash rate unchanged at a record low of 2% given that the Governor recently said he was pretty content with current policy. However, the accompanying press release may be tweaked to...