Bank of Japan’s ‘yield curve control’ gets mixed reception
With news overnight that the Bank of Japan has unveiled a new form of stimulus, professional investors and economists reacted with mixed enthusiasm.
Monetary Policy
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ECB goes into holding pattern
The European Central Bank decided to stick rather than twist today as it announced the deposit rate has been held at -0.4%, the refinancing rate held at zero, and the details of its €80bn per month quantitative easing programme are unchanged.
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Chinese QE – more curse than blessing
As the all-powerful government in China continues to see the stellar growth it had become used to in recent years ebbing away towards 6% and perhaps even below, it will inevitably reach for new levers to pull. Just as they once did with Western manufacturing, the Chinese are likely to be looking at the United…
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IMF warns of Fed danger as ECB reassures markets
The IMF yesterday warned that a rise in interest rates by the Federal Reserve could lead to a new crisis, with a spike in bond yields and emerging market economies particularly badly hit. Most estimates of when the Fed will begin rate hiking, or ‘normalisation’ as it is often called, range from as early as…