Money/Credit/Debt
Despite the economy being on the verge of a recession, the South African Reserve Bank will not ease policy meaningfully. Doing so will accentuate the currency depreciation, which, in turn, will push up bond yields – an outcome the central bank would like to prevent.
In this BCA Special Report, we ask what policies investors should expect if Donald Trump wins the 2024 Presidential election. The answer is that a second Trump term would be much less positive for risky assets than the first. While the US will remain democratic and geopolitically preeminent no matter the outcome of the 2024 election, a second term Trump administration would likely oversee large budget deficits, continued wealth inequality, labor shortages, high import prices, and an erosion of checks and balances, possibly including at the Federal Reserve. Trade policy under a second Trump presidency represents the greatest cyclical risk to investors, and the sequencing of policies in general will be important to monitor. An early legislative priority of immigration over tax cuts, alongside the rapid imposition of new tariffs, would be the worst alignment for risky assets.
Over the next six months, the deterioration in non-US growth will occur earlier and be more pronounced than in the US. This expectation reinforces our confidence to bet on the strength of the US dollar. As usual, the flip side of the US dollar strength will be weakness in EM risk assets.
China will continue to suffer from a “triple crisis”. Though there could be a tactical bounce, cyclically we still recommend underweighting Chinese equities.
Chinese A-shares will probably begin forming a volatile bottom. The basis is that authorities will likely throw the kitchen sink at the onshore market in an attempt to stabilize share prices. The same is not true for offshore listed stocks. Hong Kong-traded Chinese share prices will likely continue to fall. Beijing is less concerned with offshore stocks as their holders are primarily foreign investors.
Easier financial conditions, rising home prices, rebounding consumer sentiment, and a stabilization in manufacturing activity all augur well for near-term US growth prospects. An unsustainably low savings rate is a key risk to the US economic outlook. Our revised forecast is centered on a recession starting in late 2024 or early 2025.
Indonesia will not revert to dictatorship. Yet the guardrails against authoritarianism are also constraining the actions of the next government in tackling near term domestic and regional challenges. For long-term positioning, use potential selloff from a “dictatorship scare” to build position as structural outlook for Indonesia is positive due to the China-West divorce and the global energy transition.
