ECB minutes from January’s meeting confirmed that the central bank would look through increases in inflation triggered solely by a surge in energy prices and would concentrate on whether there was any evidence of second-round inflation effects.
The ECB expected that overall inflation pressures would remain muted despite an important element of uncertainty surrounding developments in wages and there was a further pledge to maintain a very accommodative monetary policy.
Eurozone That was a surprise: yesterday the EU announced that inflation had fallen to 2.4% which was considerably better than the 2.7% that markets had expected. Despite the ECB saying it was far too early to cut rates, the market has pencilled in the first cut for April. Before getting carried away it should be […]
Dutch Election What the Hard Right under Geert Wilders winning by the largest number of seats(37) means for Europe will become clear in the next months but for the Netherlands the composition of their new coalition government is expected to take a month and will likely comprise 4 or even 5 parties. This may or […]
British Pound Two days after the Autumn Budget Statement, the Pound is hanging in there and is looking firm. Why? Despite some attempts to talk it up on the grounds of the economy not in fact contracting, but merely marking time, the real reason is that while not being shouted from the rooftops, but definitely […]