Opinion is split over whether the Reserve Bank of New Zealand will slash its 6.5% cash rate to 5.5% or 5.0%. The announcement will be made at 02:00 GMT Wednesday (09:00 local time and 21:00 Eastern St...

In a speech yesterday evening, Fed chairman Bernanke said that the Fed is ready to take additional steps to bring longer-term interest rates lower. Bernanke acknowledged that there is limited room to ...

In an emergency meeting held by the Bank of Japan tonight, the policy board decided unanimously to keep the Overnight Call Rate at 0.30%. This comes after the BoJ had cut the interest rate from 0.50% ...

The 100-basis point reduction was slightly above consensus, although matched several forecasts including my own. There have been four cuts since September 2nd, totaling 300 basis points. The new 4.25%...

The Reserve Bank of Australia cut interest rates by a greater-than-expected 100 basis points, bringing borrowing costs to six-year low at 4.25%. As had been suggested in the minutes from the bank's la...

The Reserve Bank of Australia slashed its benchmark cash rate by 100bp to 4.25%. Economists expected a cut of 75bp to 4.50%. The RBA's announcement stated "together with the spending measures announce...

The Reserve Bank of Australia has lowered its interest rate a full 100 basis points to 4.25 percent. Governor Glenn Stevens has lowered the rate to a low not seen during the last six years. By doing t...

A drop of 100 basis points to 4.25% is near the high end of expectations. There were earlier easings of 25 basis points on September 2nd, 100 bps on October 7th, and 75 bps on November 4th. 4.25% woul...

The Reserve Bank of Australia is widely expected to lower the benchmark interest rate to 4.50% from 5.25% as the growth outlook for the $1T economy turns bleak. A Bloomberg News survey showed that 15 ...

The Bank of Japan will hold an emergency meeting this week to discuss plans on creating a lending facility for domestic firms struggling to get financing in current market conditions. The plan would a...

Life isn't getting any easier for the RBNZ. Each time they have sat down to review interest rates this year, the global credit crisis has been deeper, the outlook for economic growth has deteriorated,...

We expect December to be another active month for the foreign exchange market as central banks around the world take their interest rates to historically significant levels. There are 4 central banks ...

Minutes from the October's Bank of Japan meeting revealed policymakers were deeply divided on the appropriate monetary response as the world's second largest economy sinks to recession. The bank settl...

The monetary policy meeting minutes from Japan revealed that member Atsushi Mizuno voted against the 20 basis point rate cut at the October 31st meeting, stating that a cut would not have any effect o...

The Federal Reserve and the Treasury this afternoon announced new measures to secure the flow of credit to the economy to prevent a deepening of the slowdown. Specifically, the measures are targeted t...

BoE's King said deflation is not part of the MPC's central CPI projection and said that although there's a risk of negative price growth, such a scenario should only be last for a short period. There ...

Using history as a guide, credit conditions to date imply U.S. job losses could continue to accelerate late into 2009, with over a million job losses in a quarter, and core inflation could fall to nea...

As expected, the Bank of Japan did not reduce its 0.3% rate target for overnight money, but a released statement painted a bleak picture with recession persisting for some time. Officials moreover ide...

The Bank of Japan (BoJ) as expected left its leading O/N target rate unchanged at 0.3% in a unanimous decision by its board members. In its statement the BoJ said that the economy has been increasingl...

In a unanimous vote today, the Bank of Japan held its benchmark interest rate at 0.30%. The previous meeting saw the bank cut rates by 20bp, the first of such moves in seven years. It was also reveale...

The Bank of Japan decided unanimously to keep the Overnight Call Rate at 0.30%. This comes after the BoJ had cut rates at the last meeting from 0.50% to 0.30%, while the market expected a full 25 basi...

The Swiss National Bank cut its point target on 3-month Libor interest rate by 100 basis points to 1.0%, the center of a 0.5-1.5% range. This was the third reduction between scheduled policy assessmen...

The Swiss National Bank surprised the markets for the third time as the central bank unexpectedly lowered the 3-month LIBOR target rate by 100bp to 0.50-1.50 as fears of deflation intensified. The SNB...

The SNB cut the target range for 3m Libor by 100 bp to 0.5-1.5% in another inter-meeting move. The SNB said in a statement that as a result of price falls to oil and raw materials, inflation is likely...

On Wednesday night the Federal Open Market Committee published the minutes of the October 28-29 monetary policy meeting. It is very clear from them that all committee members are highly aware of the s...

The international environment has weakened considerably. The Bank’s forecasts incorporate a projection that average growth in Australia’s major trading partners will slow sharply from around 3.75 perc...

The Fed has been on an easing cycle for many months now. At its most recent rate decision, the Fed lowered the fed funds rate by 50 bps to 1.00% and left the door open for further cuts. Going forward,...

The Federal Reserve cuts its estimate for U.S. growth in 2009 and raised its estimates for unemployment, according to minutes released today of the Oct. 28-29 meeting. Fed officials said they expect t...

Minutes from the Monetary Policy Committee's (MPC) early-November meeting candidly reveal that policymakers believe that they would ultimately need to cut rates by more than 200 basis points from the ...

The markets are ecstatic about the Bank of England's proactiveness even if it means that UK interest rates will probably drop below 2 percent. Given the tone of the BoE minutes, we expect another 100b...

The BoE's minutes from the meeting held at the beginning of November shows that the committee voted unanimously in favor for a 150 basis point rate cut, despite a consensus that said a 200 basis point...

The minutes from the BoE November 5-6 meeting showed a unanimous 9-0 vote behind the 150 bp rate cut and revealed that a larger move was even discussed but that the MPC felt that it would have proved ...

ECB monthly report echoes Trichet's statement last week with the editorial stressing saying that the crisis is likely to damp demand for a "rather protracted period". It also called on the banking sec...

The ECB releases the data that backs the bank’s decision to cut interest rates by 50 basis points, to 3.25% at the meeting held one week ago. Usually, the market has a weak response to this release, s...

The Bank of England, like Australia's central bank, has reduced its key rate by 200 basis points since September. In fact, the BOE accomplished such in just two steps of 50 basis points in October and...

The Reserve Bank of Australia was hesitant about easing monetary policy with inflation still cresting. That central bank made its final two hikes during 1Q08 of a multi-year, 300-basis point tightenin...

BoE Governor King said if Sterling falls far enough, it would be a concern, but noted that he is not surprised of the recent depreciation. Sterling has depreciated sharply on a deteriorating growth ou...

According to the latest Inflation Report, there has been a strong deterioration in the outlook for domestic and global economies. This will have a strong affect on the domestic demand in the United Ki...

The BoE Inflation Report has CPI just below 1% in two years time based on market rate expectations before the November rate cut, which included a 2.8% repo rate estimate for Q3 of 2009. However, even ...

Interest rates are being cut aggressively around the world as economic growth slows and as price inflation either falls back from recent peaks or is set to fall sharply in the months ahead. A worsenin...

The Reserve Bank of Australia has stated that the gross domestic product forecast has been reduced in the wake of slower global demand and that more rate cuts may be necessary. The bank expects unempl...

We think there are at least three reasons why the ECB did not implement a bolder rate cut today. First of all, it appears at least some at the ECB still harbour residual concerns about the inflation o...

A year ago, many economists and traders believed the US financial crisis would stay within the boarders of the world's largest economy and other countries would be immune to the economic consequences....

As expected the ECB today lowered the policy rate rates by 50 bp to 3.25%. In the statement the tone was clearly softer on inflation. Also the tone on activity was soft. They did not reintroduce their...

The Bank of England this morning shocked the markets by cutting interest rates by 1.50 percentage points to 3.00%. Consensus forecasts were for 50bps, the high was 100bps, and financial markets were p...

Mr. Trichet appeared more bearish than usual over the Euro-area economy, especially as the financial crisis is affecting the real economy. In the bank’s words, the HICP is expected to come down in the...

The ECB had been projected to cut rates by 50 basis points and did so. But the move was only a third as forceful as the Bank of England's and in that context appears to timid. A 75-basis point cut was...

It is almost as if there is a new man in town at the BoE. Yesterday, I argued that the BoE could cut by 100bp and they even blew away that outside expectation. Earlier this year, Mervyn King was still...

It is the morning for rate cuts with the European Central Bank, Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank all cutting interest rates. On a day when the Bank of England shocked the markets with a 150...

Swiss monetary officials acted outside of a scheduled quarterly meeting for the second time in a month. The new LIBOR target range becomes 1.5-2.5%, with a point target of 2.0%. The Swiss on October 8...