Dr. Platon Monokroussos, Chief Market Economist, Deputy General Manager, Eurobank Ergasias S.A
HIGHLIGHTS
WORLD ECONOMIC & MARKET DEVELOPMENTS
GLOBAL MARKETS: The JPY kicked off the week on a weak note pressured by market talk over further BoJ monetary policy easing at this week’s policy meeting. Market focus this week is also on the two-day FOMC meeting that concludes on Wednesday with investors appearing to be bracing for a more hawkish message. We share the view that the Fed will stay put on its monetary policy and will adopt a rather cautious tone despite the improvement in financial market conditions over the past month.
GREECE: The Eurogroup of the 22nd of April assessed the state of play of the negotiations between Greece and its official lenders in the context of the 1st review of the programme noted the significant progress that has been achieved and pointed out the remaining open issues in policy areas such as fiscal strategy and the new privatisation fund. In addition, it came to the decision that the reform package will also contain contingency measures to be activated in case the programme deviates from the fiscal target of 3.5% primary surplus in 2018.
SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE
ROMANIA: Romanian FX and money markets were relatively quiet last week.
BULGARIA: Failing to gain from the positive tone in major European equity market last week, local equities lost ground.
SERBIA: As was widely expected the ruling center-right Progressive Party won Sunday’s snap general elections, after scoring a reported share of around 50%.
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