As the global economy picks up, inflation is oddly quiescent
But central banks are beginning to raise interest rates anyway
A FEW years ago, the news about the euro-zone economy was uniformly bad to the point of tedium. These days, it is the humdrum diet of benign data that prompts a yawn. Figures this week show that GDP rose by 0.6% in the three months to the end of September (an annualised rate of 2.4%). The European Commission’s economic-sentiment index rose to its highest level in almost 17 years. Yet when the European Central Bank’s governing council gathered on October 26th, it decided to keep interest rates unchanged, at close to zero, and to extend its bond-buying programme (known as quantitative easing, or QE) for a further nine months.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Gone missing”
Finance & economics November 4th 2017
- As the global economy picks up, inflation is oddly quiescent
- Investors call the end of the government-bond bull market (again)
- Increasingly, hunting money-launderers is automated
- Jerome Powell is poised to be named chairman of the Fed
- Asian households binge on debt
- In Japan, the move from cash to plastic goes slowly
- October 30th marked the 70th birthday of the WTO’s precursor
- Catalonia and the perils of fiscal redistribution
From the November 4th 2017 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from Finance & economics
Don’t let Donald Trump see our Big Mac index
America’s tariff-loving president could learn the wrong lessons from international burger prices
Will America’s crypto frenzy end in disaster?
Donald Trump’s team is about to bring digital finance into the mainstream
Do tariffs raise inflation?
Usually. But the bigger problem is that they harm economic growth and innovation
European governments struggle to stop rich people from fleeing
Exit taxes are popular, and counter-productive
Saba Capital wages war on underperforming British investment trusts
How many will end up in Boaz Weinstein’s sights?
Has Japan truly escaped low inflation?
Its central bankers are increasingly hopeful