Dr. Platon Monokroussos, Chief Market Economist, Deputy General Manager, Eurobank Ergasias S.A
HIGHLIGHTS
WORLD ECONOMIC & MARKET DEVELOPMENTS
GLOBAL MARKETS: The negative tone in the majority of global equity markets today favored the safe haven appeal of the JPY with the USD/JPY standing close to 119.80/85 at the time of writing after hitting multi-session highs near 120.40 at some point on Wednesday. Looking at today’s calendar, focus is on the US ADP private sector employment report ahead ofFriday’s US March non-farm payrolls survey which is expected to add to recent evidence pointing to a solid improvement in the domestic labor market.
GREECE: Official talks in Brussels discontinued y-day and discussions are expected to resume next week, after the Catholic Easter holiday. Speaking to reporters y-day, EU Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said that negotiations between the Greece’s negotiating team and the representatives of the four Institutions were constructive and confirmed that the Euro Working Group will hold a teleconference today to assess the progress made so far.
CYPRUS: According to media reports parliamentary vote of an insolvency bill that was supposed to be held on April 2, will be deferred for after Easter as the House Finance and Interior Committees did not have the time to review it.
SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE
BULGARIA: Labour Minister Ivailo Kalfin reportedly said on Tuesday that the government plans a gradual increase in the retirement age to 65 years for both men and women by 2037.
ROMANIA: In line with consensus, the National Bank of Romania (NBR) cut its key policy rate by 25bps to 2.00% at its MPC meeting on Tuesday. At the same time, in an attempt to further strengthen the monetary policy transmission mechanism, the Central Bank lowered the Lombard rate by another 50bps to 3.75% and maintained the deposit rate unchanged at 0.25%, effectively narrowing the symmetrical corridor of interest rates on the NBR’s standing facilities around the policy rate by 25bps to 1.75%.
SERBIA: Industrial production contracted by 3.3%YoY in February and retail sales turnover fell by 0.8%YoY over the same month.
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