Category — Eastern Europe

It is not easy for many to admit that they made an error. It seems the President Trichet might finally be starting to embark on that difficult path. After raising rates in the Euro-Zone over the protests of many top figures within that continent, Trichet finally admitted what the rest of the world had realized some time ago: the Euro-Zone’s growth prospects are weak. This announcement/confession reflects that the ECB is starting to question if it did the right thing in raising rates. By hiking interest rates, the ECB indicated that it believed that growth would not be hurt too much by their inflation-targeting movements. It seems as though they were mistaken.

While admitting a mistake is a rarity for many, it seems that is even less frequent for public figures. Powerful men and women at the top of their fields have usually ended up there by making correct decisions, and so the idea of messing up can seem foreign. However, with the future health of the European economy largely riding on the ECB’s next move, it is time to these men and women to bite the bullet and cut rates. By alleviating this pressure the ECB will, among other things, send the message that they take growth very seriously and are committed to the economic prosperity of the European Union.

While inflation is very important, the ECB should currently direct its focus towards growth. Inflation targeting is not a cure-all, and if attacking inflation includes the ruin of the Euro-Zone’s economy, then that does not strike me as very helpful.

Upcoming Figures
EUR German Gross Domestic Product (2Q)
EUR German Consumer Price Index (Jul)
EUR French Gross Domestic Product (2Q)
EUR Euro-Zone Gross Domestic Product (2Q)
EUR Euro-Zone Consumer Price Index (Jul)
USD Consumer Price Index (Jul)
NZD Retail Sales (Jun)

Many in recent years have pointed to a “global market” that has emerged in the past few decades. While this term is typically a reference to increased global trade and international economic cooperation, the expression is also becoming applicable to the status of the world’s economy. After several years of widespread economic boon, it is becoming clear that the status has shifted. This has occurred not solely in economic powerhouses such as the U.S., the Euro-Zone, and Great Britain, but in many of the emerging markets throughout the world. As I reported here, India’s rupee has been slammed recently, and many other up-and-coming economies’ currencies are sharing the rupee’s fate of late.

Until recently, one of the “hotter” currencies in the world was the Brazilian real. However, it is expected to experience significant losses in the coming months, along with the currencies from many other emerging markets. From this trend, it is clear that the effects of a “global market” are not all positive. Similarly to how they import goods, so too it seems that these growing economies import the economic health of the major economies. Despite having vastly different economies, many are suffering from the familiar problems of rising inflation, high commodities prices, and rising unemployment. In other words, problems that seemed so close to home for many Americans and Europeans are nonetheless beginning to afflict peoples halfway around the world.

Still, unlike the U.S., the Euro-Zone, and Great Britain, growth is not as severe of a problem for many of these emerging economies. Hence the central banks do not have the complex task currently facing the Federal Reserve and the ECB: rising inflation and decreasing growth. This will allow them to just focus on combating inflation, yet the obstacle of high unemployment may limit any potential effectiveness of their actions. With investors starting to exhibit a preference for investing in U.S. markets in lieu of emerging markets, these growing economies must figure out a way to solve their economic problems soon. Otherwise, it could take some time to entice foreign investors to return, which could make any recovery of currencies such as the rupee or the real a long, arduous process.

Upcoming Figures
CHF Trade Balance (Jun)
CAD Retail Sales (May)

One of the interesting aspects about today’s country in the Random Country Report is its youth; the country abandoned communism less than twenty years ago. Hungary, like many of neighbors, is a relatively young republic, and while many countries have had centuries to adapt to capitalism, Hungary has had about eighteen years to acclimate to a free market. Considering that with the fall of communism, Hungary lost – seemingly overnight – access to about ¾ of its export market, one has to be impressed with the strides that the country’s economy has taken.

Hungary, now firmly a “second-world country,” is a member of European Union (since 2004) and the World Trade Organization. It is on track to have access to the Euro by 2012, slowly approaching the conditions of the Maastricht Treaty. Their current currency, the Forint, trades at around 144 Forints to 1 US Dollar, demonstrating the importance of adopting the Euro (a much stronger currency). Though the currency was pegged (in the 1990’s) to a basket of various currencies, the Forint is now a floating currency. Having experienced tremendous growth for years, Hungarian GDP has slowed recently, yet is expected to pick up soon.

While Hungary, like many countries emerging from the Soviet Bloc, relied on IMF funds for some time, they have paid off all of their debts to the Fund. The country is very attractive to foreign investors, given its location (situated between Central and Eastern Europe), its educated and skilled workforce, and its exchange rate, among other factors. As a member of the European Union, there are also significant advantages for foreign investors.

The outlook for Hungary is unclear. While membership to the EU is a positive step, the country needs to make significant improvements in order to be able to use the Euro. In order to meet the rigid standards, Hungary might have to make unpleasant decisions relating to its economy. For example, they might have to attack inflation aggressively in the obligatory attempt to halve it within the coming years; this could facilitate poor growth. Still, I am guardedly optimistic about Hungary’s long-term prospects as many of their strengths are areas unlikely to change, such as foreign investment, tourism, and political dedication to pursuing free-market policies.

Upcoming Figures
JPY Leading Index (May)
CAD International Securities Transactions (May)
USD Housing Starts (Jun)
USD Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Survey (Jul)
CAD Bank of Canada Monetary Policy Report
JPY BOJ to Publish Minutes of Board Meeting (Jun 12-13)

With this week’s ECB’s decision all but official, a more important question looms: what’s next? The ECB is a bank whose primary focus – witnessed in both its charter and its past actions – is price stability. Despite poor economic performance in recent months, the ECB essentially has to raise rates this week, as the Euro-Zone’s current inflation level is double the target of 2%. While President Trichet and his peers may pray that a single, small hike will be enough to curb rising inflation, the more likely scenario is that the policy move will not have a huge effect. So, the question remains: what’s next?

What’s next is a big decision. The age old debate (or as old as central banks have existed) between pursuing policies that facilitate growth or inflation is front and center in many prominent economies around the globe, and Europe is no exception. Rising energy costs have not helped the problem, leading some analysts to publically worry about stagflation rearing its ugly head. In a perfect world, high growth rates allow central banks to raise rates in the never-ending war on inflation (e.g. Australia). However, growth is unquestionably slowing all throughout Europe, and many fear that a rate hike could severely impact many of the smaller economies in the Euro-Zone.

In the long-run, Trichet (or whoever is in charge of the ECB in the future) has no choice; the ECB must focus on price stability first and foremost. However, in the next six months, what the ECB will do is anybody’s guess. One popular school of thought is that the ECB will employ a wait-and-see attitude; they will raise rates now and then observe the resulting economic data for a few months. Others feel that the ECB’s mandated focus on inflation will lead to a series of hikes, regardless of the costs. For many years, West Germany’s Bundesbank produced astounding economic prosperity, a result that many attributed to the Bank’s dedication to price stability. The ECB is a descendent of the Bundesbank, and so in my mind, I think that the ECB will not be done raising rates for the year after this week.

Of course, they could shock the world and not raise rates. You never know what will happen in the world of foreign exchange…

Upcoming Figures
AUD Reserve Bank of Australia Rate Decision
USD ISM Manufacturing (Jun)
USD ISM Prices Paid (Jun)

EUR/USD has been establishing fresh highs almost daily for the past two weeks.  The upward movement in the currency pair is due to a variety of factors pointing to both euro strength and dollar weakness.   Economic growth within the Eurozone is forecast to be 2.6% in 2007, putting the 13-country region at a pace behind only Great Britain among the industrialized world.  Also, most currency analysts expect at least one more rate hike this year, probably in October.  Money follows yield in the forex market, and that is certainly true with the euro.  And when analyzing this currency pair, it is impossible to ignore the recent comments of ECB members Stark and Papademos when they talk about the strength of the economy and the threat of inflation.

The weak dollar is also to blame for a lot of the support underneath EUR/USD.  Subprime mortgage losses and concerns in the credit market overall have scared off a lot of dollar investors.  Countrywide Financial Corp., the country’s largest mortgage lender, reported its third straight quarterly decline in profit and lowered its forecast for next year.  The price of credit has surged as traders continue to be worried about the possibility of the subprime crisis spilling over into other parts of the economy.  If the issues spread into the larger credit market, we will see a significant knock on growth, and it is this problem that has led to the significant dollar selling in the forex market.  Yesterday, we talked about how the weak dollar made US assets cheap and attractive.  But if the dollar continues to slide, then the assets being held drop in value.  Just the perception of dollar weakness can ignite a massive sell-off in dollar-denominated assets.

It is not certain, however, that we will see the bottom fall out in the US dollar.  Today’s currency trading has provided mixed signals for the future.  French consumer spending was a positive, coming in at 1.6% vs. 0.7% expected.  Italian Retail Sales was a slight disappointment, however, rising only 0.1% vs. 0.3% expected.  Even worse, the manufacturing PMI reading fell to 54.8.  Not only is that lower than the 55.5 forecast, but it is the first time the reading fell below the 55.0 level since February 2006.  The Eurozone economy is much more dependent on manufacturing and exports than either the United States or Great Britain, and this may be the first sign that the high exchange rate is dampening European growth.  The mixed bag of data threw currency traders for a loop and kept the euro trading around 1.3800.

So what can we expect from the forex markets in the future?  New French President Sarkozy is still clamoring for more political say in the decisions of the European Central Bank.  What that means for us is that he wants a larger emphasis placed on stimulating growth as opposed to containing inflation (low interest rates).  ECB President Trichet should be able to resist this intrusion, and the monetary policy makers are likely to raise rates to 4.25% by October of this year.  That is fundamentally positive for the euro, especially since the US Fed is likely to keep rates constant for the rest of 2007.  But technical analysis of the forex market does paint a different picture, as most signs point to the euro being overbought and the US dollar being oversold.  As such, instead of seeing the EUR/USD march toward 1.4000, we should instead see a correction and a rise in the value of the dollar.

European Central Bank President Jean Claude-Trichet spoke to a group of students and economists recently on the “overwhelming success of the euro.” Europe as a whole is definitely going through a boom period right now with unemployment in the continent at a 25-year low and steady growth. Much of that success, Trichet claims, should be credited to the unified economic and monetary policy. I want to spend some time this morning talking about that assertion and how the euro has been good (and bad) for Europe.

Now the economic virtues of the European Union are numerous, but I want to just focus on the currency today. One of the advantages of the euro is that weak economies get to piggyback on strong ones. And by strong ones, I mean Germany. For the last 60 or so years, Germany has been the engine that drives European growth, and its currency, the Deutschemark, has been Europe’s most stable. What the euro does is it allows countries like Italy, which had a notoriously bad currency, to benefit from the international confidence in German stability. Germany’s reputation basically grants a halo effect to the rest of Europe. This is essential for the central and eastern European countries because as emerging markets, their currencies might otherwise be subjected to dangerous volatility levels.

Another benefit is the political independence of the European Central Bank. Before European monetary policy became aligned, the central banks of many countries were headed by the finance ministers in those countries. But finance ministers are politically appointed, and so the economic and monetary decisions were often dependent on political gain or loss. The independence of the ECB from European governments has allowed for more stability in monetary policy. This is an especially important front to pay attention to as French President Nicolas Sarkozy continues to push for more input from finance ministers. Let’s hope that ECB can withstand this misguided effort.

While the stable monetary policy has been mostly a good thing for Europe, it does have its share of problems. A unified monetary policy eliminates some independence for individual areas. If most of Europe is going through a bust cycle, the bank will lower interest rates. But if Belgium is experiencing growth, this decision will lead to inflation in Belgium.

One great example of this scenario is Germany after re-unification. The government faced a need to invest in what used to be East Germany, and increased investment led to inflationary pressures. The German government needed to raise interest rates to combat this threat. France faced no such threats, but had to raise interest rates as well to maintain the integrity of the fixed Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). The French economy experienced a recession, and plans for a unified monetary policy almost fell apart eight then.

This problem is evident today as well. Most western European economies are stable and developed. Growth is consistent, but not especially fast. Unemployment and inflation are usually at manageable levels. But the newer EU countries, those from Eastern Europe, are at a different stage in their economic growth. They are, as a whole, growing faster as developing countries. Ideally, the different parts of Europe would have different monetary policies to accommodate the different conditions, but the euro would make that impossible. Sharing a currency means sharing a monetary policy. So while the euro is mainly a good thing, it might not be a good thing for everyone involved.

November inflation data was published yesterday above expectations.  Although lowering from above 11% earlier this year, CPI came in at 9.9% YoY.  PPI came in at 12.7%.  The most likely response from the central bank will  be to not lower the rates anytime soon.

Riots broke out in Hungary after an audio clip surfaced of Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany saying how the government lied about the state of the economy to help him be re-elected. Hungarians trying to be part of the European Union and adapt the Euro needs to have below a 3% of GDP deficit to qualify, where it is

currently forecasted to be 10.1% this year. To do this there are increases and social security payments and the sales tax increased from 15% to 20%. Worried that this may cause unwanted inflation and weaken the Forint, the Hungarian central bank (NBH) raised interest rates by 50 basis points to 7.75%. Calyon expects another 50 basis point hike in October.

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Starting at approximately 2:30 AM EST, after details were leaked about the new Convergence Programme report due to be submitted to the EU on September 1, the EUR/HUF moved 470 pips to 279.20, retracted and moved up to a new high at 279.61. The report is worse than expected with public debt likely to stay high until the end of the decade.