Jun 10, 2022

Consumers were meant to drive the post-Covid-19 recovery in 2022, but elevated geopolitical uncertainty and sky-high inflation have derailed these expectations. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, consumer surveys suggest that Eurozone households are as pessimistic – or even more – as they were during the height of the pandemic.

Jun 08, 2022

At tomorrow’s policy meeting, the ECB will sound the starting gun for its first rate-hiking cycle since the Global Financial Crisis. We expect the ECB to announce the end of net asset purchases and to pre-commit to a 25bps rate hike in July – the first one in 11 years.

Jun 02, 2022

The EU’s targets for reducing emissions are not ambitious enough to meet the Paris climate goals: Taking into account its “fair share”, calculated by dividing the remaining carbon budget by its share of the global population, the EU needs to slash emissions by 65% by 2030 instead of the aspired 55% and achieve climate neutrality by 2040, 10 years earlier than currently planned.

May 30, 2022

Against initial expectations, comprehensive sanctions did not plunge Russia into a currency crisis. Unlike other emerging market currencies during times of stress, the Russian ruble experienced a short-lived depreciation.

May 24, 2022

Strong economic tailwinds, rising risk awareness and record-high savings buoyed by booming markets made 2021 a good year for the insurance industry. Insurers worldwide collected almost EUR4.2trn in premiums, 5.1% more than the year before (life: +4.4%; p&c: +6.3%).

May 23, 2022

Food prices and food security concerns were high on the agenda of the G7 group of countries meeting on 13-14 May in Stuttgart (Germany). Agricultural food prices rose by +31% in 2021 and will increase by a further +23% in 2022 amid a general increase in input costs (fuel, electricity, fertilizers), years of lower agricultural yields translating into low stocks and, more recently, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine impacting not only the supply of food staples such as wheat or oil, but also having ripple effects on the prices of substitutes.