The
People’s Bank of China set their one- and five-year loan prime
rates today. Despite there not having been any change to the
Medium-term Lending Facility (MLF) rate this month the Bank cut the
5-year from 4.6% to 4.45%, leaving the 1-year unchanged at 3.7%. The
5-year LPR is the reference rate used for home mortgages in China.
Lowering it is a policy move from the PBOC to assist in lowering
home-loan borrowing costs and therefore prompt more economic
activity. Lockdowns in China have strained economic growth in the
country.
Also
in central bank new
s,
President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Neel Kashkari
spoke at the end of the US day. He
admitted that because household finances are in some cases in better
shape than before the pandemic, the Fed may end up needing to raise
rates further to bring inflation under control.
There
is more in the bullets above.
From
Japan we had April inflation data, with significant moves higher for
CPI, most notably for the core-core measure, which is the closest to
US core CPI:
National
CPI excluding Food, Energy 0.8% y/y
-
expected
-0.9%, prior was -0.7%
There
is more in the bullets above.
Major
FX moves here were not too large but showed some US dollar strength
pretty much across the board. USD/JPY is back above 128.00. EUR, AUD,
GBP, NZD are all a little lower against the USD while USD/CAD is
little net changed at all.