The Federal Reserve has done the right thing by reducing its balance sheet and increasing interest rates to support a thriving economy, why reverse this now?

The Federal Reserve has unwound its balance sheet by 12% over the past year and reduced it to $3.81 trillion (from a peak of $4.5 trillion in 2017).

It has also increased interest rates since from 0.25% (range of 0% to 0.25%) in 2016 to 2.5% (range of 2.25% to 2.5%) now.

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38 countries currently have interest rates at an all-time low

A decade on from the financial crisis, 38 countries currently have interest rates at an all-time low. Ultra-low interest rates seem to be the tool of choice for Central Banks to help stimulate economies globally. But seriously, this a decade on from the financial crisis? Did the world really recover from the financial crisis? Probably not …

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Interest rates are headed downwards as global bond yields are falling quickly again

At the start of 2019 we wrote that 2019 will be a year that will be different with interest rate hikes slowing or interest rates even reversing.

Earlier this month the European Central Bank said interest rates would remain at record lows at least until the end of the year and then last week this was followed by the Federal Reserve saying that it does not expect an interest rate rise for the U.S. for the rest of 2019.

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The average global central bank interest rate has barely changed over the past year

Between March 9, 2018 and March 9, 2019

  • 53 countries raised interest rates with an average increase of 1.74%
  • Excluding increases in Argentina, Turkey and Yemen, the average increase across the other 50 countries that raised interest rates was 0.82%
  • 36 countries saw a decrease in interest rates, with an average decrease of 1.18%
  • For all countries in the world, the average interest rate change was +0.29; excluding Argentina, Turkey and Yemen – the average interest rate change was -0.01%

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The European Central Bank says interest rates would remain at record lows until the end of the year; Eurozone growth forecast slashed; New monetary stimulus TLTRO-III announced

The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) expects the key ECB interest rates to remain at their present levels at least through the end of 2019.

The interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility are 0.00%, 0.25% and -0.40% respectively and these rates are expected to remain in place at least until the end of 2019.

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Rising benchmark interest rates in the United States are having little impact on mortgage and saving interest rates as well as interest margin of banks

The Federal Reserve increased the target for the bank’s benchmark rate by 0.25% (to a range of 2.25% to 2.5%) at the end of December, the ninth rate rise since 2015. Rising benchmark interest rates are having little impact on mortgage and saving rates or interest margin of banks.

Interest Margin of Banks in the United States stood at 3.33% at the end of Q3 2018, up just 0.03% from Q2 2018 (3.3%) and up just 0.18% from Q3 2017 (3.15%).

US banks net interest margin January 2019

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