Central Banks enter a “pause” period
Over 10 central banks held a monetary policy meeting last week. The big picture is that Emerging Market (EM) central banks ex-Turkey are entering the rate cutting cycle, led by Brazil and Latin American central banks. Mature Market (MM) central banks are oscillating between “skip” or “pause” strategies, and communicating that they are close to peak rates for the cycle. The two surprises of last week were delivered by the Bank of England (BoE) and Swiss National Bank (SNB) which held rate steady, despite expectations for respective hikes. Both the BoE and SNB are paying more attention to lagged effects of monetary tightening on unemployment, economic activity and the housing market, which are showing...