COVID versus the central banks

Tuesday 7th September 2021The RBA meets today and the big question is, will they push on with their tapering schedule, reducing weekly purchases from $5b per week to $4b. NAB’s Ray Attrill says that they will, but there are concerns about the optics of making a move when the economy is in lockdown. The same question applies to the ECB later this week. Central banks have a direction they want to take, but the timing is being determined by the rise in COVID cases. On that, a rate hike by the RBNZ is looking even more likely, as the country starts to ease restrictions as cases are contained. Equities in Europe were up today, and will likely rise in the US as they return from the Labor Day holiday. That too is likely to be a response to the Fed delaying tapering, topping up the punchbowl for a while longer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.