Category Archive: 2.) Pictet Macro Analysis

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ECB gets ready to make the leap

2018-06-12

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2018-06-12

ECB Policy Rate, Jan 2018 - June 2018
The ECB has had essentially two options going into the June meeting: either a dovish decision but a hawkish communication (hinting at an imminent QE tapering), or a hawkish decision but a dovish communication (counterb alancing a tapering announcement with dovish sweeteners).

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Europe chart of the week-German new orders

2018-06-11

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2018-06-11

Germany: three measures of new factory orders 2011-2018
German new orders were weak across the board in April, contracting for a fourth consecutive month and by a larger-than-expected 2.5% m-o-m following a downwardly-revised 1.1% drop in March. As a result, total manufacturing orders are off to an extremely weak start in Q2 (-3.3% q-o-q after -2.2% q-o-q in Q1). What is more, the decline in demand for German goods in April was fairly broad-based across countries and sectors.

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Europe chart of the week – Spanish growth

2018-06-05

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2018-06-05

Spain GDP and EC Economic Sentiment Index, 2006 - 2018
This week saw the final release of Spanish GDP growth for Q1. The economy again managed to post robust growth, the highest among the four largest euro area economies (+0.7% q-o-q versus 0.4% q-o-q for the euro area). The breakdown of figures showed that domestic demand was once again the main growth driver.

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Euro area inflation close to ECB target in May

2018-06-03

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2018-06-03

Euro Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices Inflation and ECB Staff Projections
Today’s release of euro area flash HICP surprised to the upside both in terms of headline inflation (which surged from 1.2% to 1.9% y-o-y in May, above consensus expectations of 1.6%) and, crucially, in terms of core inflation (HICP excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco rose from 0.7% to 1.1%).

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Spain Snap Elections in Sight

2018-06-02

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2018-06-02

Spain Politics in General Election
Political instability in Spain has added to turmoil in other peripheral countries. The situation is not comparable with the one that Italy is experiencing at the moment, but since it comes at the same time it is increasing market volatility. Last Friday, Spain’s main oppositionparty, the Socialist party (PSOE) filed a no confidence vote against Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. The debate will start on May 31 with a vote probably on June 1.

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Italy heads towards new elections

2018-06-01

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2018-06-01

Italian polls on voting intentions in the next general election
Fragmented politics and the risk of a financial crisis continue to hang over the country.This weekend, the Five Star Movement and the League decided to pull the plug on their attempt to form a coalition government after the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella vetoed the appointment of anti-euro professor Paolo Savona as minister of finance. Mattarella has granted ex-International Monetary Fund official, Carlo Cottarelli, a mandate to form a...

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ECB: contingency plans

2018-05-25

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2018-05-25

ECB’s policy rates and asset purchases, including projections
A look at different scenarios for the ECB’s exit from quantitative easing and its expected rate hiking cycle.Our baseline scenario for ECB normalisation still holds. We expect QE to end in December 2018 and a first rate hike in September 2019. The ECB is likely to wait until its 26 July meeting to make its decisions on QE and forward guidance.Still, downside risks have risen to the point where another open-ended QE extension can no longer be ruled...

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PMIs point to downside risk to near term euro area growth

2018-05-24

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2018-05-24

Eurozone GDP growth
Euro area flash PMI indices failed to stabilise in May. Details were somewhat less worrying than headline numbers and overall still consistent with a broad-based economic expansion, if only at a slower pace than last year. Our forecast of 2.3% GDP growth in 2018 still holds, but the balance of risks is now clearly tilted to the downside in sharp contrast with the situation prevailing a few months ago.

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Eurosceptic Italian government faces a reality check

2018-05-22

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2018-05-22

With the putative M5S-League government publishing its final common programme, we take a look at the road ahead for the Italian economy and for Italian government debt.We expect negative noise surrounding the Italian budget to intensify initially, but believe that negotiations with Brussels will result in compromises eventually, including dilution of the incoming Italian government’s fiscal easing measures. The biggest risks lie with the proposed...

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Europe chart of the week – Italy’s fiscal buffers

2018-05-18

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2018-05-18

The incoming government’s fiscal plans could result in a sharp deterioration of Italy’s public finances. However, broader fiscal metrics are better than they were during the euro sovereign crisis.The M5S-League coalition has committed to a significant degree of fiscal easing and to the reversal of some structural reforms. Such policies will put Italy on course for confrontation with Brussels over deficit reduction targets, although at this stage we...

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Europe chart of the week – Corporate Sector Soft Patch

2018-05-06

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2018-05-06

Next week’s detailed breakdown of ECB QE monthly data will reveal a marked slowdown in the pace of corporate bonds purchases in April (Corporate Sector Purchase Programme, or CSPP). Indeed, weekly holdings data have been consistent with gross purchases of around EUR3bn in April, down from EUR5.8bn on average in Q1. There are several possible explanations for the drop in gross purchases, but redemptions are not one of them, as they amounted to just...

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Europe has a lot to lose from trade wars

2018-04-08

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2018-04-08

Any estimate of the economic costs of protectionist measures, let alone trade wars, is subject to uncertainty given the complexity of global supply chains. A common assumption is that new tariffs on exports will produce small direct effects on GDP growth but more significant indirect effects in the event of escalating trade conflicts, including on domestic investment.

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Larger-than-expected reduction in French public deficit

2018-03-30

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2018-03-30

France’s public deficit fell to 2.6% of GDP in 2017 according to INSEE’s preliminary assessment, down from 3.4% in 2016 and below the 3% threshold for the first time since 2007. The outcome was better than the government’s estimate of a 2.9% deficit. If confirmed, France will exit the Excessive Deficit Procedure that the European Commission opened in 2009.

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Impact of recent tariffs on US and China’s GDP should be limited for now

2018-03-29

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2018-03-29

The Trump Administration last week announced tariffs of 25% on USD 60bn worth of imports from China (out of USD506bn of total Chinese merchandise imports). The list of products targeted, still has to be thrashed out. The official aim is to sanction China for alleged theft of US firms’ intellectual property; the US Trade Representative (USTR) estimates the damage amounts to USD 50bn.

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British pound – Smoother transition, stronger sterling

2018-03-28

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2018-03-28

Recent positive developments in the United Kingdom (UK), namely the transitional deal reached between the UK and the European Union (EU) on 20 March and the strong job market report on 21 March, call for a more positive short-term outlook for the sterling than previously thought. We therefore revise our projections upward for the sterling on the entire time horizon.

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Disentangling the Swiss current account

2018-03-27

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2018-03-27

Following the Swiss National Bank’s (SNB) publication of Switzerland’s balance of payments data for Q4 2017, in this note we look deeper into the Swiss current account to try to find out why Switzerland persistently runs a surplus and whether or not the current account balance can be used to assess the fair value of the Swiss franc.

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Europe chart of the week – monetary policy

2018-03-23

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2018-03-23

Much of recent ECB dovish rhetoric has been building around the (not-sonew) idea that potential growth might be higher than previously thought, implying a larger output gap and lower inflationary pressure, all else equal. The argument is both market-friendly and politically welcome – what we are seeing is the early effects of those painful structural reforms implemented during the crisis. Inflation would be low for good reasons.

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Europe chart of the week – Employment

2018-03-17

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2018-03-17

Euro area employment grew for the 18th consecutive quarter in Q4 2017 (+0.3% q-o-q), and is now 1.5% above its pre-crisis (2008) level. By contrast, hours worked per person employed decreased during the same period, remaining 4% below their pre-crisis level. The two data series have followed divergent trends since the start of the economic recovery. Between Q1 2008 and Q2 2013, the total amount of labour input used by firms decreased massively.

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ECB begins to rotate forward guidance

2018-03-12

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2018-03-12

The ECB made one small change to its communication in March consistent with a normalisation process that is likely to remain very gradual. In line with our expectations, today the Governing Council (unanimously) decided to drop its commitment to increase asset purchases “in terms of size and/or duration” if needed, which had steadily become more difficult to justify and less credible anyway.

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China: February PMIs point to deceleration in industrial activity

2018-03-05

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2018-03-05

China’s official manufacturing Purchasing Manager Index (PMI) for February, compiled by the National Bureau of Statistics of China and the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, came in at 50.3, down from 51.3 in January and 51.6 in December 2017. This is the lowest reading of this gauge since October 2016. The Markit PMI (also known as the Caixin PMI), however, edged up slightly to 51.6 in February from 51.5 in the previous month

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