Qatar National Bank

Bond markets were particularly volatile in recent days. In fact, over the 72 hour period from July 30th to August 1st, market expectations about the future path of U.S. policy rates fluctuated...

The outlook for the global economy continues to weaken. In fact, Bloomberg consensus forecasts for global growth in 2019 has changed from 3.6% in Q4 2018 to 3.3% at the time of writing. Similarly, the...

The Federal Reserve (Fed), the US central bank, is under pressure from both President Donald Trump and financial markets to stimulate the US economy by cutting interest rates. However, the Fed only...

The European Central Bank (ECB) is struggling to achieve its inflation target of less than but close to 2%. It disappointed markets by only extending its “forward guidance” by 6 months,...

The US Federal Reserve, widely known as simply ‘the Fed,’ is conducting a comprehensive review of its monetary policy framework. First announced in November 2018, the review intends to...

Developments in US-China trade negotiations have suddenly changed for the worse as the US hiked tariffs on USD 200 Bn of imported Chinese goods from 10% to 25%. The action broke the Trump-Xi trade...

A new economic order is emerging as China presses ahead with its Belt & Road Initiative (BRI). Nearly 40 world leaders and some 5,000 delegates gathered in Beijing for the second BRI Summit late...

Capital flows to Emerging Markets (EM) suffered in 2018 as global financial conditions tightened and the USD appreciated. However, the first quarter of 2019 saw a clear rebound (see chart). We expect...

After several months in the doldrums, China’s economy is stabilizing as it starts to respond to fiscal and monetary stimulus. The impulse is also being amplified by improved sentiment as a trade...

In its latest World Economic Outlook (WEO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasted a temporary slowing in the growth rate of global economic activity (GDP) to 3.3% in 2019 from 3.6% in 2018....

The Fed struck again with the 19-20 March meeting of the FOMC providing yet another dovish surprise to markets. After nine rate hikes since December 2015, the latest two FOMC meetings have produced...

The U.S. Federal Reserve, widely known as simply ‘the Fed,’ surprised the market over the 29-30 January meeting of its Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) by delivering a dovish message...

Commodity prices have started to recover since their recent lows in late December, after having plummeted from their recent highs in May-October 2018. In fact, the Standard & Poor’s Goldman...

It is not all doom and gloom for the global economy in 2019. Emerging Markets (EM), particularly in the realm of foreign exchange rates (FX), are expected to perform better than last year, despite...

Bad news spreads fast and far. The effects of weakening demand in large advanced and emerging economies (U.S., EU, Japan, and China) are spilling over to other corners of the globe. Despite positive...

Despite a weaker euro area recovery and mounting headwinds associated with softer global growth and higher policy uncertainty, the European Central Bank (ECB) has decided to end the net purchases of...