Central banks holding back

Thursday 19th August 2021The RBNZ didn’t push interest rates up yesterday, in light of the national lockdown. NAB’s David de Garis says the decision has been pushed back to October, all being well. It all depends on COVID numbers of course. Australia’s jobs numbers today are less relevant than usual given that they only covered the start of the NSW lockdown – the real numbers of concern will be infection rates. The FOMC minutes highlighted the divide that exists in the Fed on the speed of tapering, with Bullard suggesting tapering should be pushed back to next year, but finished in time for a rate hike later in the year. All this is putting markets on hold, with shares taking a knock and bond yield hardly moving. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.