ECB On Hold
The deadline for bondholders to declare whether they wish to participate in the Greek bond restructuring passed at 2000GMT on Thursday. No formal announcement has yet been made on the size of the take-up. However Reuters, citing an unnamed senior Greek official, said participation levels had reached 95%. We expect to hear further details on Friday when Eurozone finance ministers hold a teleconference at 1300 GMT. Meanwhile, the IMF announced its Executive Board would likely meet on March 15 to decide how much to contribute to Greece’s second rescue. Europe has already pledged EUR 130 bn. In the past the IMF has typically topped-up Europe’s contribution by one-third. However newswire sources have repeatedly suggested that the IMF’s financial involvement will be far less this time around. The ECB kept the refi rate unchanged at 1.0% as was widely expected. The Bank of England kept their policy rate unchanged too, and made no change to the asset purchase target. Today, nonfarm payrolls are due in the US. Before that, the focus in Asia will settle on a batch of China numbers. A positive outcome for risk-appetite would be a soft CPI number in combination with strong industrial production and retail sales. Over the past 24 hours, EURUSD traded 1.3132-1.3291 and USDJPY 81.00-81.73.
Click here to read the full report: UBS Morning Adviser Asia
UBS Investment Bank