China’s February 8 interest rate hike was in line with a broader theme of monetary tightening in emerging markets over the course of 2011, and is a dynamic which brings both risks and opportunities across assets classes. The People’s Bank of China’s decision to raise the one-year lending rate by 25 basis points (bps) to… [Read more]
Friday morning’s news that the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has decided to raise the yuan reserve requirement ratio for banks by 50bps to 18.5% comes as little surprise to BMI. It is in line with our Asia team’s expectations that the ratio would be increased further in order to cool runaway credit growth. And… [Read more]
While I had not been pencilling in another interest rate hike this year, the Reserve Bank Of Australia (RBA)’s decision to raise its policy rate by 25 basis points (bps) for a third consecutive month to 3.75% on Tuesday was not wholly unexpected. Indeed, Business Monitor Online stated on November 30 that the risks were… [Read more]