Some Thoughts on the 2019 Outlook

2019 set to be a tougher year…
Growth momentum has weakened in the second half of 2018, particularly in European and Asian exporters, who are responding to the end of above potential growth of the last few years, which has moderated final demand growth. Tariffs, restrictions and tighter financing costs have reinforced this trend, making final harder to forecast and encouraging caution on new investment decisions, Meanwhile Fed tightening, exit from quantitative tightening and boost in available US Treasurys, have begun to increase debt service costs across a range of sectors and geographies.
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Slowing final demand growth globally is not a surprise, and has been a part of our themes for the last year, but the trade disputes and restrictions have reinforced some caution from buyers and supply chains. The drivers of this slowing of growth include a) the disconnect between policy stance in the U.S,. and other major economies across fiscal and monetary policy b) the lack of structural measures to boost final demand growth, c) removal of the “sugar rush” of monetary policy support as quantitative tightening takes hold. The U.S. and Chinese central banks have been particularly focused on continuing with business as usual, with overall policy stances only partly supportive. In both cases, a relative disconnect between fiscal and monetary policy complicates the messaging, and exacerbates some of the FX pressure.

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