Archive

June 16, 2025
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Euro Area Wage Costs Closer To Target

  • Non-wage labour costs rebounded in Q1, damping the overall slowdown to a surprisingly modest extent after the crash in negotiated wage growth revealed in May.
  • Unit labour cost growth has encouragingly slowed below 3%, with the latest impulse only 0.6% q-o-q. Any further easing here could encourage monetary easing to resume.
  • Stability at a low unemployment rate still suggests the policy setting is close to neutral, so we doubt disinflationary pressures will mount further and forecast no more rate cuts.

By Philip Rush

June 09, 2025
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Trade Avoidance Easing Shocks

  • China’s crashing exports to the US partly reflect avoidance measures, including rerouting through other countries and marking down import prices to subsidiaries.
  • Exports to the EU and UK are only trending slightly higher, making little difference to disinflation. ASEAN countries, and especially Vietnam, are seeing trade surge again.
  • The US may clamp down on avoidance measures that have eased the shock so far. It could make a painful example of one to encourage concessions from all trade partners.

By Philip Rush

June 05, 2025
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ECB: Policy Well-Positioned Already

  • The ECB’s 25bp cut took rates to a level that it considers well-positioned for the current outlook, thereby removing the presumption in favour of further easing.
  • Lower headline inflation forecasts are already embedded in that judgement, with the temporary role of energy and FX recognised. Downside risks preserve some dovish bias.
  • We still see this rate cut as the final one amid tight labour markets that preserve excessive underlying inflationary pressure. Market pricing should be less dovish.

By Philip Rush

June 04, 2025
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US vs EU: Mutually Assured Destruction?

  • The consensus over Section 899 is that it is about leverage and deterrence, and that it is unlikely ever to be fully deployed, given the damage it would do to the US itself. However, what if the EU, in particular, calls Mr Trump’s bluff and/or it is intended even in part as a revenue-raising measure?

By Alastair Newton

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