This was widely expected. From Bloomberg on Wednesday:
Norges Bank raised its key interest rate a quarter point from a record low and signaled steeper increases than it previously forecast over the next three years as inflation accelerates and unemployment remains low.
The Oslo-based bank raised the overnight deposit rate to 1.5 percent, becoming the first European central bank to reverse its easing cycle since the credit crisis started to abate. Nineteen of 20 economists surveyed by Bloomberg had predicted the move, while one had expected a half-point increase.
Don't expect the Fed to follow with a rate hike of its own soon though. Wednesday's US economic data show that the sustainability of the recovery remains a question. From Reuters:
Sales of new U.S. homes unexpectedly tumbled in September, their first drop in six months, underscoring the hazards to an economic recovery even as businesses appeared to be stepping up investment.
New single-family home sales fell 3.6 percent to a 402,000 unit annual pace from a downwardly revised 417,000 units in August, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected sales to rise to a 440,000 unit pace...
The housing data represented a road bump in a recovery that otherwise appears to be widening. Another Commerce Department report showed that new orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods rose 1 percent in September as businesses stepped-up investment plans...
The report showed orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for investment spending, rose a solid 2 percent in September, suggesting businesses were growing increasingly confident the economy's recovery would be sustained.
No comments:
Post a Comment