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账单一万四 从狗熊到英雄
Westpac's Evans goes from zero to hero
http://www.businessday.com.au/business/westpacs-evans-goes-from-zero-to-hero-20110815-1iucu.html
西太银行的首席经济学家,账单一万四,从欧洲考察回到澳洲后(有点像赖哥加国考察12年后回国)人生观发生了改变,经历了从狗熊变英雄的一举成名。
2011年7月15日,一万四一鸣惊人,预测RBA将在年底之前减息。这一预言使账单(Bill)本人蒙受了巨大的压力和侮辱。
账单预言,澳洲的失业率2012年将升至5.75%。
RBA在随后的月经会上将澳洲的年增长率从3.25%降到2%。
金融市场的交易员现在100%押注RBA在11月份之前将减息75点。
高盛和德国银行也调转枪口,向RBA喊话:降息!降息!
四大银行也纷纷阵前起义,纷纷放下高利率,仿佛兵败如山倒,利率狂减
即使是最嘴硬的ANZ,也将2-3年的固定利率猛降60点到6.44%。
一万四,现代版的余则成,曾求学於悉尼大学和伦敦经济学院,毕业后在RBA潜伏多年,后又在CBA卧底,最后回到了西太的怀抱,而来已有20余年。
Westpac chief economist Bill Evans changed his outlook after a trip to Europe.
Bill Evans, chief economist at Westpac, was Australia's loneliest forecaster 4 weeks ago as the first to predict an interest-rate cut.
Traders acting on Mr Evans's July 15 prediction would have profited amid the market carnage sparked by Europe's debt crisis and the first US credit-rating downgrade.
The yield on the 3-year government bond dropped as low as 3.41% from 4.41%, handing investors a 23% annualised return. The benchmark stock index has tumbled 5.4% and the dollar lost 2.9%.
Mr Evans's call, while yet to be proven right, is gaining a following: Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank last week switched course to forecast the next Reserve Bank rate move will be down. A recent trip to Europe helped convinced Mr Evans the region's troubles would slow Australia's economy, which hasn't been in a recession for two decades.
“The way we saw it, the global economy would provide the catalyst, but the major reason would be the deterioration in the unemployment rate in Australia,” Mr Evans said in an interview. “It got more attention than most predictions we make, and at the time I didn't expect that.”
The day he reversed his earlier call that rates were likely to rise, Mr Evans was the outlier in a Bloomberg News survey of 21 economists, with the others forecasting an increase or no change.
RBA's Inaction
The RBA will tomorrow publish minutes of its August 2 meeting, when Governor Glenn Stevens left the overnight cash rate target unchanged at 4.75% after considering whether to end an eight-month pause and lift borrowing costs.
On July 26, Mr Stevens said the nation's subdued household spending will likely rebound as consumers gain confidence. A day later, a report showed inflation surged in the second quarter above the central bank's target range of 2% to 3%, increasing speculation of further rate increases.
The RBA on August 5 slashed its 2011 growth projection to 2% from 3.25%. Traders see a 100% chance Mr Stevens will lower the benchmark rate by 75 basis points to 4% by November, cash rate futures showed in Sydney this afternoon.
“He looked completely wrong for about 10 days and now he looks like a genius again,” said Annette Beacher, an economist at TD Securities in Singapore.
'Rate-cut Rory'
Former Macquarie Group rate strategist Rory Robertson, who now works for Westpac, bolstered his reputation after betting against the market and accurately forecasting the central bank would cut rates in 1996, earning him the nickname “Rate-cut Rory.”
In 2009, JPMorgan Chase chief economist in Australia Stephen Walters was alone in picking Mr Stevens's decision to become the first Group of 20 policy maker to boost rates after the height of the global recession.
Mr Evans has spent two decades at Westpac, the nation's second-largest lender. Prior to that, the Sydney University and London School of Economics graduate worked as a research manager for the Reserve Bank and held roles at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the nation's biggest bank.
“I'm an output gap guy,” Mr Evans said in the interview in Sydney. “If the output gap is widening because the labor market is weakening, then workers can't get the wage increase they want to compensate for that and you end up with slower growth.”
EU Troubles
Mr Evans said he and his team of economists found reasons to change their outlook on Australian rates after he returned last month to Sydney from a tour of London, Frankfurt, Zurich, Paris and Edinburgh, where it became clear to him “how dysfunctional that whole story” of European debt was.
“The biggest test with these sorts of things is how comfortable do you feel telling the story to your customers. And if you don't feel comfortable, you've got to reassess it,” said Mr Evans, who also forecast the jobless rate would rise to as high as 5.75% next year.
“Bill is renowned for going overseas on marketing trips and coming back and changing his call,” said Warren Hogan, chief economist at ANZ, who expects rates to stay unchanged. “And he obviously made the trip to Europe just before his last change of view which proved to be quite fortuitous. But there's still a long way to go. The RBA hasn't cut yet.”
Jobless rate
Unemployment jumped in July for the first time since October, to 5.1%, according to a report last week. Separate reports since July 31 show consumer confidence deteriorated for a fourth straight month to the lowest level in more than two years and demand for mortgages grew at the slowest annual pace in June since 1977.
The central bank's next meeting is on September 6. Last week, economists at Goldman Sachs predicted a cut next month, and Deutsche Bank forecast a reduction in October.
While ANZ reduced home loan rates for three-year fixed mortgages to 6.44% from 7.04% yesterday, Commonwealth Bank chief executive Ralph Norris said he doesn't expect “substantial” reductions by the central bank.
Asked whether he now feels his December call may now be too cautious, Mr Evans replied: “I'm not going to change it.”
[ 本帖最后由 长安雪梨 于 2011-8-16 00:08 编辑 ] |
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