Dr. Platon Monokroussos, Chief Market Economist, Deputy General Manager, Eurobank Ergasias S.A
HIGHLIGHTS
WORLD ECONOMIC & MARKET DEVELOPMENTS
GLOBAL MARKETS: The announcement of the BoE’s MPC monetary policy decision and the MPC minutes of the meeting take centre stage today. The Committee is expected to keep its policy unchanged after a number of surveys and hard data released over the last few sessions surprised positively. However, the MPC minutes are expected to signal that the prospect of further BoE monetary policy easing in the coming months remains on the cards.
GREECE: According to the Bank of Greece, Greek banks further lowered their borrowing from the Eurosystem in August 2016 to €78.5bn from €82.8bn a month earlier. Data from Greece’s main airports show an increase in international arrivals by 6.4%YoY in August 2016 and by 6.5%YoY for the period January – August 2016 while road arrivals decreased by 0.7%YoY in August 2016 and by 3.8%YoY for the period January – August 2016. According to the Hellenic Statistical Authority quarterly Labour Force Survey, the unemployment rate for Q2 2016 was 23.1% compared to 24.9% in Q1 2016 and 24.6% in Q2 2015.
SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE
ROMANIA: The current account deficit widened to 1.3% of GDP in Jan-July up from 0.5% at the same period last year.
CESEE MARKETS: Emerging market assets remained under pressure for the fifth consecutive session earlier on Thursday, weighed down by the recent steepening in developed market yield curves and prevailing investor caution ahead of major Central Bank monetary policy meetings next week.
Daily Overview September 15 2016
