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.
Blinkers Today is the day that the ECB and Bank of England meet. Spreads in the spot, forward and options markets are all reflecting a degree of uncertainty and exhibiting volatility already. As we have mentioned, both central banks are widely expected to pursue a 50-basis point hike but the higher conviction call within these […]
Germany With the increasingly uncomfortable news for Germany that German inflation is running at almost a 50 year high at 8.8%, it is becoming clear that calls for a modest rise in Euro interest rates in September are not going to cut it for the more hawkish Northern European members of the ECB who […]
UK Retail Sales Up 2.3% in July breaking the previous 3 month down trend due to purchases of summer clothes, picnic equipment and electric fans to cool consumers down. The last category could usefully be directed towards inflation which now stands at 9.4%. GBP/USD 1.2110. Spain As some of our readers will […]