3 Central Banks, 3 Holds - Investec
Research Team at Investec, suggests that the three central bank meetings overnight saw all three policy makers remain on hold.
Key Quotes
“The
FOMC held interest rates as expected yesterday, although removed an
explicit reference to global risks and acknowledged the continued
improvements in the labour market, even with subdued overall economic
activity. The overall message was the Fed are monitoring and ready to
act if needed. The slightly more hawkish bias keeps the door open for a
June rate rise, and initially saw some US Dollar buying. Although that
soon pared as investors are well aware that the data dependant Fed gave
no explicit steer on the likelihood of a June hike.
The Reserve
Bank of New Zealand also held interest rates with some having expected a
cut, subsequently the New Zealand Dollar relief-rallied post decision.
In
Japan, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) held QE and negative rates firm, despite
a lot of speculation the BOJ would ease policy after a stronger Yen and
natural disasters may have sped up the central bank's thinking. A
seemingly greater tolerance by the BOJ of persistent below target
inflation has seen the Yen rise by around 3% since the policy
announcement.”
