WORLD ECONOMY

摘要

With US stocks hitting record highs on the back of strong jobs' growth, the European Central Bank holding out the prospect of printing money and British house prices soaring, there is a lot to ponder in the week to come. The Dow Jones index breached 17,000 for the first time last week, days after the Bank for International Settlements - the global forum for central banks - said that markets were in a "euphoric" state and that keeping interest rates too low for too long could sow the seeds of another crisis. In fact, the world's major central banks are operating at different speeds and, in some cases, are on opposing paths. The Bank of England is highly unlikely to lift interest rates from a record low 0.5% after its monthly policy meeting on Thursday, but it is looking increasingly certain to be the first major central bank to tighten policy. The US Federal Reserve is winding up its money-printing programme but seems comfortable leaving rates low until well into next year. The European Central bank cut rates last month and may yet have to resort to quantitative easing to ward off deflation. The European Central Bank faces a very different threat deflation. Hours after ECG president Mario Draghi held out the prospect of printing euros to rev up the economy, Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann broke cover to say the ECG should not leave policy loose for too long. Chinese and US officials will hold talks in Beijing on July 9-10 with Washington again calling on Beijing to do more to allow the market to set the value of its yuan currency.