VENTURE CAPITAL POST

European Central Bank Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny warned on Monday that inflation is expected to continue to fall in the eurozone in the first quarter of 2015 amid a prolonged slowdown in economic growth.He told a conference in Frankfurt that, "We see a massive weakening in the euro zone economy”.

In the upcoming week, China's trade balance, consumer price index and industrial production are scheduled for release, Swiss National Bank libor rate and monetary policy statement are to be announced...

Australian GDP sank to 0.3 percent in the third quarter, significantly below analysts’ expectation of 0.7 percent, Australian Bureau of Statistics showed on Tuesday. In the second quarter, GDP grew by 0.5 percent. In the fourth quarter, the RBA is expecting the annual growth to ease to 2.5 percent and will probably be around 2.5% to 2.75%.

The central banks are finding it difficult to boost growth by increasing domestic demand and hence the need to depend upon foreign demand. The progressive rate cuts and monetary easing measures have led to massive falls in these currencies thereby helping these countries to increase exports.

Last month the Bank of Japan announced aggressive easing of its monetary policy and shocked the global financial markets.This led to the yen hitting fresh lows against the dollar. The weakening of the yen is believed to reverberate through the Asian markets.

Recently released Chinese data suggest a grim economic outlook for the country. Foreign direct investment has been consistently declining; consumer price index showed some stability this month but remained below 2 percent, flash manufacturing PMI also declined in November and gross domestic product fell to its slowest pace since the global financial crisis, registering 7.3 percent year-on-year expansion in the third quarter.

While the fall in the oil prices is generally regarded as positive for many businesses, it has a major influence on inflation expectations, interest rates and bond prices at the global level.

Today, the minutes of the MPC meeting held on 5th and 6th November was released. The Committee set monetary policy to meet the 2% inflation target in the medium term, and in a way that helped to sustain growth and employment.

With US Fed likely to increase the interest rates by mid 2015 and ECB and BoJ keeping their monetary policy accommodative, there could be major capital flows from euro area and Japan into the US and thereby leading to further strengthening of the US dollar.

Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank gave introductory remarks at the EP’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee on 17th November 2014. He mostly spoke about the ‘relationship of financial fragmentation and monetary policy’ and the ‘Eurosystem’s collateral framework’.

Japan’s gross domestic product shrank by 1.6 percent in an annualized basis in the quarter ending in September, according to the preliminary report released by Cabinet Office.

The positive news on German and French GDP have calmed the fears over stagnating Eurozone economy. the International Monetary Fund said that growth performance is in line with projections in the United States and China. BoE Governor Carney lowered growth and inflation forecasts for UK. Japan's GDP data will be a very crucial factor in Prime Minister Abe’s decision on whether or not to increase the consumption tax from 8 percent to 10 percent.

In a paper “Global Prospects and Policy Challenges” published ahead of the G20 Summit to be held on 15-16 November, the International Monetary Fund said that growth indicators have weakened in Eurozone and Japan after the release of the October World Economic Outlook (WEO).

Charles I. Plosser , President and Chief Executive Officer of Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia spoke on The US Economic Outlook and Monetary Policy at UBS European Conference, London, England today.

Next week the RBNZ is going to release its financial stability report and on Tuesday Governor Graeme Wheeler is scheduled to speak. BOE quarterly inflation report & US unemployment claims, retail sales and consumer sentiment are to be released in the upcoming week.