Dr. Platon Monokroussos, Chief Market Economist, Deputy General Manager, Eurobank Ergasias S.A
HIGHLIGHTS
WORLD ECONOMIC & MARKET DEVELOPMENTS
GLOBAL MARKETS: In line with market expectations, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) stayed put on interest rates at its two-day policy meeting which concluded earlier today. It also decided to continue conducting monetary market operations so that the monetary base to be increased by about an annual pace of JPY 80trn. Favored by the BoJ’s decision to refrain from adopting further monetary policy easing in spite of a recent string of weak domestic data, the JPY strengthened against the US dollar. Elsewhere, the EUR/USD consolidated around 1.1292/1.1293 in early European trade, ahead of this week’s two-day FOMC monetary policy meeting that starts on Wednesday. On the US data front, focus today is on the retail sales and industrial production for August, while, in the euro area, the German ZEW survey is also expected to lure market attention.
GREECE: With just six days to go before the upcoming general election, the leaders of the two biggest parties SYRIZA and ND, Alexis Trsipras and Evangelos Meimarakis respectively, held a second and last televised debate late yesterday. Both leaders ruled out the scenario of a repeat election. They also pledged to honour the country’s commitments under the new bailout program adding though that they would attempt to cushion the negative impact of the MoU on certain heavily affected social groups./ According to the most recent Bank of Greece data, the total amount of funding taken from the Eurosystem dropped in August for the second month in a row coming in at €124.6bn, €1.2bn lower compared to the prior month’s level.
SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE
BULGARIA: Inflation came out flat on both a monthly and annual basis in August. Consumer prices edged up to 0%MoM/0%YoY up from -0.2%MoM /-0.2%YoY in July down from -0.9%MoM/+0.4%YoY in June.
ROMANIA: The current account deficit came in at €347mn in Jan-July down from €997mn in the same period a year ago.
Viewers can read the full report herebelow:
Daily Overview September 15 2015
