Why wouldn’t it be?
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%).
Did interest rates rise or fall globally in 2018?
Continue reading “Here are interest rates for every country and how much they changed in 2018”
Sweden’s Central Bank, the Riksbank raised interest rates for the first time in seven years on Thursday which might cause further European monetary tightening. Riksbank’s benchmark repo rate was raised 25 bps from -0.5% earlier to -0.25%. It still remains negative though.
Three-month U.S. Dollar London interbank offered rate (LIBOR) that serves as the basis for trillions of dollars in loans and floating-rate securities globally hit a 10-year high of 2.45%, the highest level since November 2008.
The reasons aren’t what you think …
Continue reading “Here’s why the Federal Reserve increasing interest rates could be a problem”
The Federal Reserve increased the target for the bank’s benchmark rate by 0.25% (to a range of 2% to 2.25%) last week, the eighth rate rise since 2015. Are rising interest rates really having any impact on mortgage or saving rates?
The U.S. economy is doing great and is set to contribute 25% of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) this year, its highest share since 2007. The rise of the U.S. dollar and increases in interest rates are squeezing emerging economics at an unprecedent pace. But it isn’t just emerging economies that are feeling the squeeze, Europe has its problems with Italian debt (and yields), the Australian dollar which has long been considered a growth asset has been falling this year and elsewhere trade worries and rising oil prices are having a big impact on other nations. Even German factory orders are the weakest in years as the U.S. is truly taking back economic leadership.
Canadian household credit growth is slowest since 2001 with Household credit (Annualized 3-month growth rate) growing at 2.98% and Household Mortgage credit (Annualized 3-month growth rate) growing at 2.85%.
Interest Rates globally are changing (in both directions) at the fastest pace ever in the history of the modern central banking system. Nearly half of the countries in the world have cut interest rates while the other half have hiked them in the past 6 months. The average change for countries with a change in interest rate has been +0.22% in the past 6 months. Take Argentina and Turkey out and the average (global) interest rate has actually fallen.
Continue reading “Interest Rates globally are changing at the fastest pace ever”
