Central Bank Policies: Hawkish Fed vs. Dovish Others"

Hawkish Fed vs. Dovish others 

By Ipek Ozkardeskaya, Senior Analyst | Swissquote Bank  

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) and the Bank of England (BoE) surprised by maintaining their rates unchanged at yesterday's trading session. The Bank of Japan (BoJ) surprised by maintaining its ultra-lose monetary policy stance unchanged. Combined with a hawkish pause earlier this week, the major currencies further sank against the greenback. The USDCHF advanced past the 200-DMA, and Cable slipped to 1.2232, a fresh low since March, and whispers of a potential return to parity against the US dollar sparked, yet again. Reasonably, the pound-dollar could return to 1.20, and below, if the major 38.2% Fibonacci support – which stands at 1.2080 is pulled out and lets the pair slip into a medium-term bearish consolidation zone. But we will likely see the Federal Reserve (Fed) soften its tone before we start talking about parity in Cable.  

Now, looking at what the BoE did, you know that I was surprised, and intrigued with the decision. In Switzerland for example, inflation – official inflation – steadied below the SNB's 2%, target. The latest data shows that the Swiss CPI is at no higher than 1.6% - even though we are expecting a monstrous rise in health insurance costs, and another 20% rise in average in electricity costs that will certainly drill holes in our pockets at the start of next year, but for now inflation is at 1.6%, say the numbers, and alone, it justifies a SNB pause. But in Britain, the no action is quite premature. Inflation in Britain is almost at 7%, the energy prices are rising, the war in Ukraine is nowhere close to being over, sterling pound is now losing value, which means that whatever the Brits will import from now will cost them more than during the last months, when the pound was appreciating. It's hard to see how, with all these developments, the BoE won't be obliged to hike, again. The only way is a really bad economic performance.