Taiwan’s central bank hikes unexpectedly, while the Swiss National Bank surprises with the first rate cut of the majors. The Bank of England holds. Strong Australian jobs growth hits hopes for an early rate cut. New Zealand is in recession.
In our bonus deep dive interview, ANZ Chief Economist for Greater China Raymond Yeung sees seven ‘D’ risks facing China in the year of the Dragon, including Deflation.
5 things to know:
Taiwan’s central bank (CBC) surprised by hiking its main policy rate by 12.5 basis points to 2% overnight. A rate cut by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) was also a surprise and makes it the first major central bank to ease, says ANZ Economist Bansi Madhavani.
Bansi says global markets still see the Fed cutting from June, helping to push US stocks to fresh record highs. The US dollar is firm too.
Jobs growth of 116,500 in Australia in February beat the consensus forecast for a 30,000 rise, driving the jobless rate down to 3.7% from 4.1%. ANZ Senior Economist Blair Chapman says it may dash hopes for an early RBA rate cut.
NZ GDP fell 0.1% in Q4, adding to a 0.3% fall in Q3. That means the economy qualified as having a technical recession. Retail trade and goods output fell, but services and consumer spending were stronger than expected, says ANZ Senior Economist Miles Workmanl
Miles says the RBNZ shouldn’t be too worried by that strength, but the big picture is there’s still plenty of sticky domestic inflation out there.
Cheers
Bernard
PS: Catch you next week to find out what’s happening with Australian inflation, New Zealand business confidence and US GDP.
