monetary policy

The economic data over the week covered the retail sales report for January and inflation data. The data sets the expectations for the FOMC meeting due tomorrow. Following the weak jobs report in February, the US economic outlook is…

The Bank of Canada held its monetary policy meeting last week on Wednesday. As widely expected, the central bank left the key interest rates unchanged amid a sudden and a sharp slowdown in the nation’s economic growth in the final months of…

The Reserve Bank of Australia held its monetary policy meeting last week on Tuesday morning. The central bank left interest rates unchanged at 1.50%, as it has done since August 2016. The markets widely anticipated this move. However,…

The Fed Chairman, Jerome Powell gave his semi-annual two-day testimony to the U.S. Congress last week. In his testimony, Powell defended the central bank’s monetary policy actions and urged patience in its approach to interest rate hikes.…

The European Central Bank will be holding its monetary policy meeting this week on Thursday. This will mark the second meeting this year. Expectations are for the ECB to start laying out plans for relaunching the Targeted Long Term…

The Bank of Canada will be holding its monetary policy meeting this week. Given the recent patch of economic data, it is unlikely that the central bank will be pushing for rate hikes. The OIS money markets are also signaling no change to…

The week ahead will see central bank meetings from the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Bank of Canada. Both the central banks are expected to leave interest rates unchanged. On the economic front, the fourth quarter GDP results from…

The month of February did not spring any surprises. The central bank meetings did not surprise with officials maintaining the official narrative, albeit a bit cautious. In the UK, the Brexit uncertainty continued into February with still…

The U.S. Federal Reserve released the meeting minutes from the monetary policy meeting from early January. The central bank’s minutes showed that officials discussed ending the reduction in the central bank’s balance sheets before the end…

The Swedish central bank held its monetary policy meeting last week where it left the key interest rates unchanged at -0.25 percent. The central bank, however, affirmed its intention that it would raise rates once again anytime during…