Retail sales in Switzerland rose 0.5% month over month in real terms in May, after a revised 0.2% increase in April, the country's Federal Statistical Office said Wednesday.
On a yearly basis, seasonally adjusted retail sales were 3.5% higher, compared with the revised 1.7% growth earlier and the consensus estimate of a 1.8% rise.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) is likely to focus on risk management given current uncertainty, which should push it to raise the official cash rate by 25 basis points to 2.5% at a policy meeting next week, ANZ said in a Wednesday report.The official rate is still 75 basis points below the central bank's estimate of neutral, the New Zealand dollar is much softer than assumed, and inflation is poised to be above target for a while, which makes it "sensible to get a hike under the belt" despite a decline in oil prices, ANZ said.The RBNZ's plausible options include a hawkish hold and a neutral-to-dovish hike, but the latter would leave the monetary policy committee in a more comfortable position as New Zealand is likely to see very mixed data in coming weeks, ANZ said."To our mind, an OCR of 2.25% is too low to balance the risks around medium-term inflation," the bank said, adding that current market odds indicate a roughly 75% chance of a 25 basis point hike next week.
The total assets of Hong Kong's Exchange Fund increased to HK$4.391 trillion as at May 31, up from HK$4.354 trillion at the end of April, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said Tuesday.Foreign currency assets rose by HK$39.8 billion in the month, driven primarily by interest income, mark-to-market revaluation of investments and government bond issuance proceeds, while Hong Kong dollar assets declined by HK$3.1 billion, due to a mark-to-market revaluation of Hong Kong equities, the release said.The monetary base at the end of May was steady at HK$2.072 trillion, it said.
Singapore's official reserve assets rose to $430.1 billion in May from $427.3 billion reported a month ago, according to the International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity data released by the Monetary Authority of Singapore on Tuesday.Foreign currency reserves, in convertible foreign currencies, also rose to $416.9 billion in the reported month from $414.5 billion in April.The country's IMF reserve position slipped to $1.44 billion in May against $1.45 billion reported a month earlier.Meanwhile, gold reserves, including gold deposits and gold swapped, also rose to $4.90 billion from $4.39 billion in April.