US traders looking for rate cut direction from the Fed chair were disappointed overnight. Australian consumer confidence drops again. And Singapore’s inflation underperforms expectations.
In our Deep-Dive interview, ANZ Chief Economist for Greater China Raymond Yeung analyses China’s domestic deflation and what can be done to turn it around.
5 things to know in 5 minutes:
US markets wavered overnight as traders viewed comments by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell as void of any indication that rates would be cut again in October. The comments came after several other Fed Governors laid out a range of views, says ANZ Economist Bansi Madhavani.
ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence dropped again last week, by 1.3 points to 84.6. ANZ Economist Sophia Angala says household confidence in the economy over the next year fell to its lowest since April 13, which was the week after US tariff announcements.
Singapore’s annual CPI continued to undershoot expectations in August. The headline of 0.5% was down slightly from July. ANZ Head of Asia Research Khoon Goh says the big surprise was core inflation at only 0.3% annually.
Khoon says ANZ Research doesn’t expect the lower inflation to have implications for the Monetary Authority of Singapore, as it will pick up towards its long-term average next year.
Malaysia’s annual inflation rate edged up to 1.3% in August as expected. ANZ Economist Arindam Chakraborty says this follows a pre-emptive rate cut by the central bank in July to support growth, and comes ahead of petrol subsidy changes which will take pressure off prices.
Cheers,
Bernard.
PS: Catch you tomorrow with what today’s Australia CPI data could mean for the RBA’s stance on rate cuts.
