Monthly Macro Outlook : There is no summer break

Calendar of August 2021

2 August – U.S. debt ceiling deadline

Unless the U.S. Congress acts by 2 August, the Treasury Department will have to resort to extreme measures to avoid hitting the debt ceiling. Back in 2019, the Congress quietly suspended the debt ceiling until August 2021. A bipartisan agreement will require the Biden administration to make political concessions to Republican lawmakers. If a bipartisan agreement is not reached on time, the real damage will be on the U.S. bond market.

3 August – Reserve Bank of Australia monetary policy meeting

With Australia’s latest spate of lockdowns and high-frequency data pointing out the hit to activity in Q3 will be real, we expect the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will reverse its recent decision to taper. Under current circumstances, there is a strong case to maintain the weekly rate of QE purchases to $5bn, at least in the short term. When the restrictions will be lifted and activity will bounce back, it will be time to start taper talk again. As for the cash rate, we continue to see the RBA on hold until early 2024.

5 August – Bank of England monetary policy meeting

Bank of England’s (BoE) external voter Gertjan Vlieghe and his colleague Michael Saunders delivered hawkish comments over the past few weeks. But we don’t see any firmer clues on an early end to QE purchases or on future rate hikes at the next monetary policy meeting of 5 August given increased risks to the outlook associated with the third wave of the pandemic. For the time being, the BoE is likely to follow the same playbook which paid off recently by signaling « significant » progress is required before Covid-19 monetary policy stimulus is removed.

11 August – July U.S. CPI

June U.S. CPI was out above expectations at 5.4% YoY. This was the largest gain since August 2008. More than 55% of the increase in the June CPI was due to six items directly impacted by the re-opening of the economy (hotel stays, airfares and used car prices especially). But with more and more firms inclined to increase prices to cope with higher wages and soaring transportation costs, the market is seriously questioning the concept of « transitory » inflation used by the Fed. The consensus expects that U.S. July CPI will come out at 4.9%. If the headline figure is higher, which is likely, be ready for a roller coaster market.

24 August – Hungarian National Bank monetary policy meeting 

On 27 July, the Hungarian National Bank raised its base rate by a larger-than-expected 30 basis points at 1.20%. This sent to the market a strong message about its intention to deliver a pro-active and front-loaded tightening cycle. With inflation likely to remain above its upper tolerance level of 4% until end-year, there is room for further rate hikes. We expect the next rate hike will happen at the meeting of 21 September when the economic projections will be updated.

30 August – France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire will meet with business representatives of sectors most hit by the roll-out of the health passport since 21 July. Further sector-targeted financial support measures will be likely unveiled soon afterwards.

26-28 August- Annual Jackson Hole Symposium This year, the Jackson Hole Symposium hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City will be in-person in contrast to last year’s event. We don’t have the full list of speakers yet. But the focus will be on « Macroeconomic Policy in an Uneven Economy ». In our view, Jerome Powell’s speech should bring little clarity on the tapering. We now expect the Federal Reserve to wait until later this year, perhaps until its December meeting, to announce forward guidance on the matter.

Global Markets’ performance :