Inflation | iBlogForex

Australian Dollar Soars

The U.S. dollar (USD) gained some ground against the other major currencies on Monday after falling last week due to poor economic data. The Australian dollar (AUD) however has risen to a three-month high due to its increasing yield attractiveness and market expectations that the Reserve Bank of Australia is set to raise rates as [...]

Swedish Krona Soars

The Riksbank recently raised interest rates to 4%, against expectations, sending the Swedish krona soaring higher. The Swedish central bank explained that it has raised the interest rate by 25 basis points to combat rising inflation, adding that there were risks linked to slower economic activity and financial market turbulence. The bank has kept its [...]

Protect Your Investment

Often, investors get so caught up with how much money they expect to make in their portfolio that they forget about protecting what they already have. As an investor, your first priority should be to protect your capital, once that’s sorted out you can focus on putting your money to work for you. Protecting your [...]

Chart Driven Forex Investors Push Euro Up

The Euro has been pushed upwards by chart driven Forex investors following the upward trend and also by Forex investors re-evaluating their interest rate expectations for the region and buying more Euro’s to invest in European assets. In other news the Bank of England’s (BoE) inflation report contributed to pressure on the GBP as the [...]

Forex Investors Reduce USD Holdings On FOMC Minutes Release

Expectations continue to build that the Federal Reserve will pause its rates tightening cycle in August, this will result in Forex traders cutting their long USD positions. The latest release of minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee meeting (FOMC) revealed that Fed officials are uncertain about the future interest rate direction and are concerned [...]

FOMC – Softer tone, but tightening bias retained

The US Federal Open Market Committee unanimously decided to raise interest rates by another 25bp during last week monetary policy meeting, taking the fed funds rate to 5.25%. More interestingly, the statement language was a notch more dovish than expected. While the FOMC does not promise anything for the August meeting, the overall message is [...]

Czech Interest Rates unchanged at 2.0%

The Czech central bank (CNB) kept interest rates unchanged last week for the eighth consecutive month, leaving its key policy rate at 2.00%. The decision was broadly expected, as inflation is still well contained. However, we think a restart of the tightening cycle is moving closer.

Polish Interest Rates on hold at 4.00%

As broadly expected, the Polish central bank�s (NBP) Monetary Policy Council (RPP) last week decided in favour of unchanged interest rates, keeping the key policy rate at 4.00%. The decision to keep rates on hold should clearly be seem in the light of the fact that inflation remains very low – below 1%. That said, [...]

Slovak Interest Rate Unchanged at 4.00%

The Slovak central bank (NBS) board meeting ended without any changes leaving the key policy rate at 4.00%. This was broadly expected, especially given the 50bp hike at the May monetary policy meeting. Today�s decision probably suggests an NBS that is biding its time and waiting for more macro-data on the economy, especially inflation, before [...]

China’s economy to maintain double-digit growth this year

China’s economy will grow by 10.3 percent in the first half of 2006, then slow marginally for a full-year expansion of 10 percent, the central bank said in a new report. At the same time, inflation will climb slowly, registering 1.3 percent in the first six months of the year and 1.7 percent for the [...]

Swedish Central Bank raises interest rate to keep inflation in check

The Swedish central bank has said it had decided to hike its leading interest rate by 0.25 percentage points, taking the repo rate to 2.25 percent to help keep a lid on inflationary pressures. The Riksbank’s goal is to hold inflation to less than 2.0 percent. Inflation has risen over the past year and stood [...]

US Dollar extends losses even with supporting US CPI results.

The USD extended losses on Wednesday after a higher-than-expected reading of U.S. inflation for May did little to dispel uncertainty about interest rate increases beyond an expected hike in late June. After seven consecutive sessions of gains in the dollar against the Euro, traders trimmed their positions after the Consumer Price Index data cemented the [...]

British inflation hits 2.2 percent in May

British 12-month inflation rose to 2.2 percent in May from 2.0 percent in April, lifted by soaring domestic energy bills and rising motor fuel prices, official data showed. May’s figure breached the Bank of England’s government-set target of 2.0 percent — and was the highest reading since October 2005 when it stood at 2.3 percent.

NZ Interest Rates Remain Unchanged

New Zealand’s central bank has kept its official interest rate steady at 7.25 percent despite slowing economic growth, citing a worse-than-expected outlook for inflation. Rising oil prices and a declining New Zealand dollar (NZD) is expected to see inflation rise to 3.9 percent this quarter, Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard said. Earlier forecasts had seen [...]

Surprise Interest Rates Rise in Turkey

To the surprise of us and almost everybody in the financial markets, the Central Bank (CB) raised its main policy interest rate by 175 bps to 15%. The average expectation for the rate increase in the market was around 50-75 bps, while we were not expecting anything more than 50bps. In the accompanying short note, [...]