Bankinter | After the monetary policy panel with Lagarde (ECB), Powell (Fed), Bailey (BoE) and Ueda (BoJ), the messages of the last meetings were maintained, as expected. Lagarde, Powell and Bailey recalled that central banks are data dependent, that they take decisions “meeting by meeting” and that their work is not yet finished. Lagarde referred to a hike in July as quite likely, but did not give any guidelines for...

Mark Holman (Vontobel AM) | The Fed’s QE programme of $80bn in Treasuries and $40bn of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) purchases per month is already being tapered with $10bn less in Treasuries and $5bn less in MBS as each month passes. In our opinion the Fed should have already finished tapering by now, but they have only just begun and at a very slow pace, suggesting it will take seven further policy meetings to complete.

Laura Becerra (Caixabank Research) | If we want to get a better understanding of monetary policy decision-making, we must pay close attention to changes in financial conditions. To do this, there is an important initial step: knowing how to measure them.

Javier García Arenas and Adrià Morron Salmeron (CaixaBank ) | The independence of central banks seems indisputable, even more so in these times of pandemic, in which they have increased their use of unconventional policies and provided coverage for the high funding needs of states. In this article we will explore the theory and empirical evidence supporting the importance for central banks to maintain their independence.

Central banks have once again received criticism for the support they have provided to markets-to-date and their role as inflation targeters. Analysts at AXA IM's view is that much of this criticism is misplaced: They expect central banks to remain inflation targeters, even though seeing the immediate pandemic impact as likely disinflationary through 2022. 

Alphavalue | The answer to this complex question is yes. Our analysts believe there is a limit to central bank intervention. This is not determined by economic or financial rules, but by politics. Ignoring that limit would violate democracy. The next question is: have some central banks already crossed the limit?