Category Archive: 2) Swiss and European Macro

On 6 April, the Trump Administration announced additional and more severe sanctions against Russia “in response to the totality of the Russian government's ongoing and increasingly brazen pattern of malign activity around the world”. US sanctions target seven Russian oligarchs, 12 companies controlled by them, and 17 high-ranking government officials. The measures freeze any US assets held by those targeted and cut them off from US finance, trade...

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The ECB’s Governing Council may have to wait a little longer to get a clearer view of where euro area core inflation is heading in the near term. The early timing of Easter this year has made travel-related services prices more volatile. Another reason is that an unexpected drop in core goods inflation has fuelled concerns over a potentially larger FX pass-through.

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The U.S. Department of Treasury has just published its semi-annual report on International Economic and Exchange Rate Policies. It comes at a time when the US Administration remains deeply concerned by the significant trade imbalances in the global economy. The report only focuses on the US’s 12 largest trading partners, which collectively account for more than 70% of the US’s trade in goods.

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Signs of a certain loss of momentum may well fuel additional ECB dovishness in the near term, but is unlikely to compromise upcoming policy normalisation.Euro area industrial production (excluding construction) was weak in February (-0.8% m-o-m) and follows the recent release of other disappointing pieces of hard data such as retail sales, German factory orders and trade. Based on available ‘hard’ data, real GDP growth rate in the euro area is...

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