
Dr. Platon Monokroussos, Chief Market Economist, Deputy General Manager, Eurobank Ergasias S.A
HIGHLIGHTS
WORLD ECONOMIC & MARKET DEVELOPMENTS
GLOBAL MARKETS: The USD/JPY’s upside momentum came to a halt in European trade on Tuesday following comments by an economic adviser to Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe suggesting that the pair may be at the “upper limit of comfort zone”.
GREECE: In an interview to a local TV station y-day, Greek Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis expressed his confidence that Greece will make its IMF payments in March and will secure enough funds to meet financing needs through June, when the four month period extension of the loan arrangement with official creditors is due to expire
SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE
SERBIA: Moody’s ratings agency said on Monday that the recently agreed 3-year €1.2bn Stand-By Arrangement with the IMF is credit positive for Serbia.
ROMANIA: Retail sales rose by 6.8%YoY in January, picking up pace from a rate of increase of 6.5%YoY in the prior month, supporting the view that the recovery in domestic consumption continued early this year.
CESEE MARKETS: Tracking modest gains in European bourses, most CESEE stock markets advanced in morning trade. Elsewhere, CEE currencies were little changed ahead of Poland’s Central Bank monetary policy announcement tomorrow, where the MPC is broadly anticipated to cut its key policy rate by 25bps to a new record low of 1.75%.
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