Key Points This Week

Australian Treasurer Chalmers announces the biggest reform in the Reserve Bank of Australia since the 90’s. The changes will see the RBA adopt a committee structure which closely follows systems at the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England and how they set interest rates. The number of policy meetings held per year will drop from 11 to 8
New Zealand Housing data published this week showed a slight pickup in the medium national house price, up from 762,000 to 775,000 in March. Days to sell improved from 60 days to 45. We expect this to drift up over the coming months as consumers “wait and see”.
Canadian Inflation slowed from 5.2% to a 19-month low to 4.3% year on year in March. This was supported by the recent central bank policy pause.
Fed’s Bullard says he doesn’t see a recession developing in the US economy in the next 6 months.
UK Inflation surprised yesterday when figures for March showed an increase in CPI from February’s 9.8% to 10.1% as food and energy prices remain elevated.
Morgan Stanley’s CEO Gorman says the Fed is not yet done with another two hikes planned.
ECB’s Schnabel said Wednesday underlying inflation remains ‘sticky’.
Inflation is still too high according to Fed officials, they need to see lower prices, it will likely take 2 years to reach their target of 2.0%
The Euro (EUR) has been the strongest performer during the month of April with the New Zealand Dollar (NZD) and the Japanese Yen (JPY) the weakest.