The remarkable resurgence in the past 2-1/2 years came after more than a decade of rock-bottom interest rates and concerns about eurozone government debt, which soured investor sentiment towards their banking stocks.

From a sector known for generating indifferent investor sentiment, Europe’s banking industry has now become one of the best-performing in the world, with the STOXX Europe Banks index remaining at its highest range since late 2007. The rally, since 2024, has been an outstanding one, with the index rising by 143%, with higher interest rates boosting interest income, apart from swelling loan demand. So magnificent has been the performance, that the sector has defied Europe’s subpar economic growth.

Meet the key Q2 performers

Deutsche Bank
The German lender has reported a 10% jump in its second-quarter profit, with strong earnings from its global investment banking division offsetting a rise in overall operational expenses.

However, it failed to catch up with some of the American and European rivals, who benefitted from tailwinds like trading booms in the wake of the Iran war, merger and acquisition deals and initial public offerings (IPOs).

Germany’s largest bank recorded net profit attributable to shareholders of 1.64 billion euro (USD 1.87 billion) in the quarter, up from 1.49 billion euro a year earlier, bettering analysts’ expectations for a profit of 1.38 billion euro.

However, the bull run was partially dampened by an 8% expense increase.

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Deutsche Bank’s 10% profit jump still got dwarfed in front of its five top American rivals, who reported 50% increases on average, helped by booming share trading, a business the German lender exited years ago.

Deutsche’s global investment bank generated 19% more revenue than in Q1. Within the division, revenue at the fixed-income and currency trading verticals, one of the bank’s largest, rose 16%, beating the expectations for a 5.1% increase. Here, the lender outpaced rivals like JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Barclays and BNP Paribas.

Business, including origination and advisory services, was 36% higher, double the figure expected by the analysts. The lender was also among the ones helping with SpaceX’s IPO and Alphabet’s capital-raising.

UBS
The Swiss biggie, awaiting for clarity on new capital rules that could shape its future, booked a 17% jump in Q2 profit that beat analysts’ expectations, while announcing the plans to buy back shares worth USD 3 billion by the middle of 2027 ‌at the latest.

Apart from witnessing robust broad-based growth, UBS’ trading division delivered record quarterly revenue, in line with strong earnings both from Wall Street and European rivals.

Net profit attributable to shareholders came in at USD 2.8 billion versus a forecast of USD 2.39 billion in a company-provided poll of analysts.

UBS, which took over rival Credit Suisse after its collapse in 2023, achieved a return on Common Equity Tier 1 capital of around 17% for the first half — above its target of 15% at the 2026-end.

UBS’ Q2 net new assets for its global wealth management division came in at USD 36 billion, led by inflows of USD 14.3 billion in Switzerland. From the Americas, there was an inflow of USD 1 billion, the second consecutive positive quarter after a run of outflows due to the loss of some relationship managers. Profit before tax in the Americas surged 47% year-on-year, though the number of advisors remained below the 2025 level.

Concerned about the risks to the Swiss economy in the unlikely event of a UBS collapse, the government has sought to make the bank ⁠hold around USD 20 billion in additional Common Equity Tier 1 capital, a move which the bank feels would damage it competitively. Lawmakers are expected to water down that requirement as they begin drafting the bill in August, as many fear requiring a permanent buffer of this scale could scare off UBS’ investors.

UBS’ integration of Credit Suisse will be completed by the end of the 2026-27 financial year. It made additional gross cost savings of USD 1.1 billion in Q2, bringing cumulative gross savings to USD 12.6 billion.

StanChart
Standard Chartered’s push for fee income powered the venture towards a forecast-beating H1 profit, with the bank lifting its full-year ‌income target after surges in wealth and global banking revenues, along with the steady credit charges tied to the Iran war.

StanChart has also announced a USD 1 billion share buyback and a 20.4 cent-per-share interim dividend. The London-headquartered lender, which earns most of its revenue in Asia and Africa, saw its pretax profit for the first six months reach USD 4.78 billion, up 9% from a year ago and ahead of a USD 4.52 billion analyst forecast.

The results acted as a crucial testimony for CEO Bill Winters’ strategy to grow fee income, earning more from wealth products and cross-border banking, at a time when geopolitical and regulatory uncertainties are creating clouds over investments and dealmaking.

StanChart’s wealth income soared 38%, driven by double-digit growth in investment products as inflows and the number of new accounts increased as Iran war-related market volatility drove up demand for wealth advice.

In H1, the lender’s cross-border and corporate banking revenue rose 19%, as large corporate clients turned to the bank to ⁠borrow money, issue debt and strike deals.

StanChart’s intra-Asia income surged in the first half, including a 20% increase in China-to-Hong Kong and 45% in China-to-ASEAN activities, backed by demand for transaction and markets business. The Middle East portfolio, which represents 6% of ⁠overall exposures, had remained broadly stable despite geopolitical volatilities.

It has set aside USD 190 million as precautionary management overlays in April against expected future losses.

How other big names fared
Britain’s Barclays reported a better-than-expected 17% rise in first-half profit. However, its equities’ performance undershot market expectations, while costs came in higher.

France’s BNP Paribas also beat forecasts with a 33% profit rise in the second quarter. Domestically focused retail lenders like Britain’s NatWest, Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo and Spain’s CaixaBank have also reported steady quarters.

Dutch lender ING posted a net result of 1.95 billion euro, surpassing analyst expectations of 1.83 billion euro, ⁠due to a 14% rise in fee income to 1.28 billion euro. The United Kingdom-based Lloyds Banking Group also reported a better-than-expected statutory ‌pretax profit of 4.3 billion pounds for the H1 2026.

Trailing behind Uncle Sam
Despite the European banking sector’s sustained rally, the continent’s lenders have remained worth a fraction of their Wall Street rivals. While JPMorgan is closing in on a USD 1 trillion valuation, the figures for the likes of HSBC and Santander are at 266 ⁠billion pounds (USD 353 billion) and 180 billion euros (USD 205 billion), respectively.

Analysts have also flagged Europe’s heavy regulation and political resistance to cross-border consolidation as key constraining factors holding back the lenders’ growth. While some central bankers say such deals are needed for European banks to compete globally, UniCredit’s nearly two-year pursuit of Commerzbank serves as the best example of what experts feel.

Despite having very few signs of rising bad loans or provisioning, European lenders, in the long run, need to be cautious against the continent’s subdued ⁠economic growth, along with the Iran war-related fallouts.

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Upon deal completion, which will also face regulatory scrutiny, Singular Bank will continue to operate as an independent entity in the Spanish private banking market.

The company, which has around 19 billion euro (USD 21.6 billion) in clients’ invested assets, also offers a full range of products and services to high-net-worth individuals. Terming Singular Bank’s offering as “complementary” to its own product lineup, ING said the deal will “accelerate” the Dutch banking conglomerate’s growth in Spain’s private banking and wealth management industries.

Adding that the move fits its “Growing the difference” strategy to offer tailored services for specific client groups, ING remarked, “The two sides will pursue further commercial cooperation in ‘already identified, tangible opportunities’ tied to client and asset growth and strategic insights, as well as access to new business prospects.”

“The companies have also agreed to re-evaluate the ownership structure in the future, with a possibility for ING to lift its stake,” the Dutch venture added further.

ING was in a reported bidding war with Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo for acquiring Singular’s stakes. As per the Financial Times, Warburg Pincus was also in the race, as it sought 300 million for the Spanish company’s full holding.

ING said the transaction, scheduled to be completed by the first quarter of 2027, is expected to have a minimal impact on its CET1 ratio. Singular Bank will continue to be led by its CEO Javier Marin.

Singular, which bought UBS’ Spanish wealth management business in ⁠2021, has around 18 billion euro under management as of Q1 2026. As per the Spanish newspaper Expansion, ING Spain will become part of a consortium of investors in which no single shareholder will hold ⁠more than 50% and which will also include Marin, a Mexican bank, and several family offices, with ING Spain holding the largest stake.

“Marin and the management team will retain part of the shareholding, alongside a number of financial institutions and Spanish investors,” ING stated further.

ING in Spain has been serving retail customers for over 25 years. Apart from offering payments, savings, investments, mortgages, and other lending products to 4.6 million customers, ING Wholesale Banking, since 1982, has also been supporting the growth of large corporates and institutions with tailored and innovative services.

“The investment in Singular Bank complements the earlier announced launch of ING’s own private banking proposition in Spain, which will offer a differentiating model combining digital scale with personal human advice,” the group noted.

ING CEO Steven van Rijswijk said, “The investment in Singular Bank is a natural next step in our strategy aimed at becoming the best European bank by accelerating growth, increasing impact, and delivering value. It is an attractive opportunity for us to enhance our ability to help clients with their varied needs across different points in their lives, while further diversifying our income. We have been impressed with what Javier and his team have built over the past years, and we look forward to working together on the further growth and scaling of Singular Bank, reinforcing our commitment to the exciting Spanish market.”

Javier Marin remarked, “Since our inception, our goal has been to establish Singular Bank as a leader in private banking and asset management, recognized for excellence, innovation, and service tailored to each of our clients. Today we begin a new phase, with a group of new partners and the same ambition. With the continued support and commitment of our team and the trust of our clients, we will expand our presence and our value proposition, with the goal of accelerating our growth and positioning the bank as the leader in private banking in Spain.”

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The consortium, which set up an Amsterdam-based company called Qivalis in 2025, now has 37 financial institutions as members, including ING, BNP Paribas and BBVA, from 15 countries.

Euro-pegged cryptocurrency has been envisioned as a medium to counter American dominance in digital payments, apart from participating in a possible future system where assets such as bonds and real estate are traded as blockchain-based crypto tokens. The project has moved on despite the European Central Bank’s reservations about the potential benefits.

Talking more about the project, Qivalis CEO Jan-Oliver Sell said, “the euro is Europe’s currency, and on-chain financial infrastructure should carry it – built by European institutions and governed by European rules.”

Talking about the European Central Bank’s reservations about the project, in May 2026, the central financial institution’s president, Christine Lagarde, stated that the growth of private stablecoins requires a stricter separation of the functions of money and payment instruments, as well as increased attention to risks for the financial system.

The 25 new members include Dutch lenders ABN Amro and Rabobank, Spain’s Sabadell and Bankinter, Bank of ‌Ireland, ⁠Sweden’s Handelsbanken and Finland’s Nordea, among others.

The formation of the consortium also coincides with the broader crypto industry’s trend of competing with mainstream financial institutions, putting traditional lenders under pressure to find uses for blockchain technology within their own businesses.

Stablecoins – ⁠a type of cryptocurrency pegged to a fiat currency – are mostly used in crypto trading and have surged in size in recent years. The market is dominated by El Salvador-based Tether and ⁠US-based Circle, which say they have around USD 190 billion and USD 77 billion of their dollar-pegged tokens in circulation, respectively,” reported Reuters.

While a good chunk of the global stablecoin market has been witnessing a sort of a dollar hegemony, an ECB working paper recently projected that that dollar-backed stablecoins would end up creating additional demand for US government debt, apart from enhancing the global role of the US national currency through digital settlements.

While the paper linked the growth of such tokens to the strengthening of the “dollar-centric” architecture of the global financial system, the euro-pegged cryptocurrency, albeit smaller in scale, wants to challenge the trend.

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The National Bank of Fujairah will leverage RippleNet’s network to serve its Indian customer base and facilitate remittance payments to India through Indus Ind Bank. RippleNet’s network allows the bank to provide its customers with a seamless payment experience.

Now, the National Bank of Fujairah‘s customers will be able to carry out secure and real-time cross border payments.

With regard to the partnership with Ripple, Vince Cook, chief executive at the National Bank of Fujairah told the media, “RippleNet will enable us to stimulate an enhanced payment experience that will allow our corporate clients to manage their finances in a more efficient way. We will always look for the next best thing for our customers as part of our commitment of being the best financial partner for their business and personal needs.”

“In a fast-moving environment, banks have to act with agility and constantly look for new and improved ways to service their clients. Digitisation remains a key catalyst for change and as a customer-first bank, we understand the importance of leveraging blockchain technology to deliver seamless and frictionless experiences to our clients.”

The National Bank of Fujairah was also one of the first banks in the UAE to join the SWIFT Global Payment Innovation (GPI) network. The Swift network helps banks using its network to leverage transparency on fees and end-to-end traceability on payments conducted on behalf of clients.

Last year, the bank also joined the trade finance blockchain network Marco Polo. The network has 22 members including heavyweights such as Mastercard, BNP Paribas, ING and Standard Chartered.

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Investors who took part in the funding round for Tonik include venture capital firm Insignia Ventures Partners and Credence Partners. Regional angel investors also participated in the funding round.

With regard to the fresh funding round, Greg Krasnov, founder and chief executive at TONIK told the media, “We are honored to have secured the backing of such prominent regional investors as Insignia and Credence. Over 70 percent of the adult population in the Philippines remains unbanked, and market research indicates that over 50 percent of existing bank clients would be keen to switch their deposits to a pure-play digital contender. We look forward to working with our new investors to improve financial inclusion in the country.”

Earlier this year, Tonik Financial announced that its subsidiary Tonik Digital Bank received approval from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), to provide digital banking services in the country.

Tonik is expected to go online in the Philippines this year. It claims to be the first fully digital bank in the region and one of the very few globally to be operating on the basis of its own bank licence.

To launch its digital bank in the Philippines, Tonik is partnering with Finastra to use its cloud platform to power its end-to-end core banking capabilities. Global neobanks such as Gravity and Revverbank also use Finastra’s cloud platform.

Traditional banks such as CIMB, ING and MayBank have also launched their own digital banking unit in the Philippines.

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According to Bert Colijin, senior economist, Eurozone, ING, the Italian referendum and subsequent concern about the Italian banking sector has not impacted confidence in the Eurozone and it caused a mere stagnation in sentiment in Italy itself. “Improving order books, strong employment expectations and strengthening assessments of production in recent months outweigh increased political volatility for the moment,” says Colijin.

Inflation is currently trending upwards as the oil price effect has run out, but core price pressures are building. Businesses are indicating that they are now passing on higher input prices to the consumer. The trend remains positive for both industry and services though. If this continues, core inflation could increase somewhat quicker over the coming months, although there is a lag between this survey indicator and price developments. It is therefore more likely to impact core inflation at the end of 2017, coincidentally the time when the current QE program is supposed to end.

Retail sales declined by 0.4% MoM in November but the trend in sales growth remains positive as annual growth is 2.3%. October growth was so strong that a small monthly decline was expected.

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IFM Correspondent

October 4, 2016: Dutch bank ING, the country’s biggest lender, announced plans to shed 7,000 jobs, mainly in Belgium and The Netherlands. The plan is part of cost cutting measure for the company, which will help it save $1.01 billion by 2021. The rise of online banking competitors is forcing the bank to reshape its digital banking strategy.

ING presented the job losses in Belgium and the Netherlands as being part of its ‘Think Forward’ strategy aimed at digitising more of the group’s operations.

Rik Vandenberghe, chief executive of the bank’s Belgian arm, said on Monday that the decision was “a shock for a lot of people … it was not an easy decision, I have not slept well these last days.”

Ralph Hamers, chief executive of ING Group, said, “You have to announce these programmes and these intentions at a time when you can afford them. We’re strong right now, we have good results, we are growing and then you have to do the repairs, and not when you don’t have any choice anymore.”

He also highlighted that ING had been hit — like other European banks — by low interest rates in the eurozone and tough regulation.

Belgian and Dutch unions reacted angrily, but analysts said the job losses were the result of the online transformation of the banking industry.

The move is the third financial sector restructuring announced in Belgium in recent weeks. Earlier, Axa Belgium and P&V also announced planned job cuts.

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August 18, 2014: According to Eurostat’s flash estimate, Eurozone GDP showed 0.0% growth in the second quarter, down from 0.2% in the first quarter. The figure was even worse than the already downbeat consensus expectation. Year-on-year GDP growth moderated to 0.7% from 0.9% in the first quarter. On a country basis, the biggest countries didn’t perform well. Germany saw a disappointing 0.2 % contraction, undershooting Eurozone growth for the first time since 2009, while France suffered the second consecutive quarter of stagnation. As already reported, Italian GDP shrank by 0.2%, while Spain managed to grow by 0.6%. The Netherlands saw 0.5% growth, though this was merely a bounce back from the very weak first quarter (affected by a drop in natural gas production).

The weak GDP figures are at odds with sentiment indicators, which had been pointing to somewhat stronger 2Q GDP growth. However, one has to take into account a few elements that might have distorted second quarter growth. In a number of countries production has been hurt by two bridge holidays in May. At the same time, there was some pay-back in construction after the mild winter boosted building output in the first quarter.

On the other hand, consumer demand has probably contributed positively to 2Q growth with retail sales growing 0.4% on the quarter, while car sales also expanded. This was confirmed by positive consumption growth figures in both Germany and France. This has likely been compensated by a negative inventory contribution.

Does this mean that growth is bound to accelerate again in the second half of the year? That would have been our expectation if it weren’t for the geopolitical tensions that have injected uncertainty into the outlook. That may likely lead to a further fall in sentiment, hurting the budding domestic recovery. These figures show that the upturn remains too weak to withstand external shocks, meaning that GDP growth will probably remain stuck in stop-and-go mode. It now looks very likely that GDP growth for the whole of 2014 will remain below 1.0%.

The bottom line is that the ECB will have to maintain an extremely accommodative monetary policy, even as the US starts to tighten policy in 2015. The bank will likely be pressured to undertake additional action if some of the downside risks materialise. We believe, however, that decision makers in Frankfurt are likely to continue to highlight the importance of the measures already taken and stand pat for the remainder of the year. Big decisions on more unconventional policy measures will have to await 2015.

Eurozone: Inflation remains too low

Eurozone inflation was confirmed at 0.4% in July, with little to suggest that the ECB’s target will be reached anytime soon. But even then, we don’t believe that deflation fears have increased in Frankfurt.

HICP inflation for July was confirmed at 0.4% year-on-year, while core inflation stabilised at 0.8%. Higher food commodity prices will probably end the negative food inflation in the second half of the year, but energy prices remain at a level consistent with a year-on-year negative contribution to headline inflation. As the economic recovery remains rather fragile, there is little to suggest underlying upward price pressures. Headline inflation is therefore likely to remain below 1% for the remainder of this year. The ECB’s 3Q Survey of Professional Forecasters showed a lowering of expected inflation for 2014 from 0.9% to 0.7% and from 1.3% to 1.2% for 2015.

Even though headline inflation has fallen back to the lowest level in 5 years, the breadth of the deflationary trend has actually narrowed somewhat over the last two months. In July, 28% of goods and services in the consumer basket had a negative inflation, down from 31% in June and 33% in May. Of course, a fall-back into recession could easily reverse this trend again, but for the time being, the ECB is probably not more alarmed about the spectre of deflation than before. That also explains why we believe that the ECB will stand pat until the end of this year, awaiting more data to evaluate the impact of its already announced measures.

Source: ING

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August 13, 2014: Many countries have been under pressure to reduce their debt burden since the global financial crisis. But results are mixed and have serious implications for the recovery, says ING senior economist Teunis Brosens.

Brosens tells how there are different ways to deleverage. First, there is the hard way of paying down debt and second, a less painful way is growing income. This also reduces the burden of debt, as a smaller part of income is needed to service debts.

A way to measure the debt burden for countries is to look at debt as a percentage of GDP. “US households and businesses reduced their debt-to-GDP ratio by 18% pointssince the peak. But the debt in dollars actually increased. It was income growth that reduced the debt ratio,” Brosens said, indicating the US, UK and core parts of the Eurozone are on the “less painful” track.

Parts of Europe are struggling, but in debt-troubled Eurozone countries of Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal, the debt ratio decreased only due to actual debt reduction. “It is like these countries have to get by on the same meagre salary, while putting aside additional money to pay off debt. An uncomfortable position,” said Brosens.

“It is difficult to determine how much further debt ratios will fall,” said Brosens. “But what we do know, is that a return to growth in southern Europe would greatly help in easing the debt burden.”

Upbeat on US

The latest National Federation of Independent Businesses Survey on small business sentiment showed a modest rise to 95.7 in July from 95.0 in June. This was a touch lower than the consensus forecast of 96.0 and is below the recent peak of 96.6 seen in May. This is disappointing when viewed in context of the strength in the ISM reports. Both the manufacturing and the non-manufacturing ISM have recovered to pre-crisis norms, yet the NFIB survey remains well down.

In the past, we have attributed this to the fact that larger corporates didn’t have the same credit constraints as small firms since they could access international capital markets while they also tended to export more of their output, which offered alternative markets to sell to. However, with the Federal Reserve Senior Loan Officers’ survey showing that credit conditions are being relaxed and with the dollar having strengthened and the external growth story, particularly in Europe, looking a little shakier then the playing field looks a little leveller.

Consequently, we are seeing the difference between the ISM and NFIB series narrow to some extent and we believe that this situation will continue in the months ahead. With half of all US employment down to the small business sector, this is a very important story to watch.

In terms of the key story for today, it is what is happening to retail sales. We assume that with employment continuing to increase and consumer confidence rising to the highest level in seven years that spending will have increased at a decent rate. That said, auto sales were a bit lower on the month so that is likely to moderate the headline rate of growth to 0.4% while we look for ex-autos sales to rise 0.6%. Moreover, the strength seen in the ISM non-manufacturing report, of which retail is one of the major components, offers support to our view of a strong outcome.

With the US economy showing renewed strength after the 1Q14 weather-relatedweakness, it is clear that the amount of slack in the economy is shrinking. This should also be evident in Friday’s industrial production numbers with output likely to rise byaround 1% MoM, given ISM strength and capacity utilisation moving to a six-year high.

As such, we feel that inflation pressures will build and will become more of an issue for the Federal Reserve, hence our early call on Fed tightening for April next year, which in turn supports our strong dollar view – EUR/USD at 1.28 for end-2014.

Nervous on Japan

Japanese 2Q14 GDP growth has come in at -1.7%QoQ, or -6.8% on an annualised basis. This is the first contraction in two quarters and is the worst reading since the 1.8% drop in 1Q11 caused by the devastation and disruption from the earthquake/tsunami on March 11.

The weakness was led by the consumer spending component (-5.2%QoQ)following the hike in the consumption tax in April from 5%to 8%. This was the first increase in the tax rate for 17 years and was part of the government’s efforts at reforming the economy and narrowing the budget deficit. It is likely that the depth of the weakness in consumer spending led to an involuntary build-up in inventories while also prompting a drop in imports. The previous rise in the consumption tax in 1997, from 3% to 5%, promptly saw a 3.5% drop in consumer spending in 2Q97.

While we had been fairly hopeful of a recovery in 2H14 GDP growth, the most recent evidence, however, hasn’t been particularly convincing. The June Tankan and the latest PMI readings for manufacturing have been fairly mixed while retail sales and export numbers have been disappointing. Rising consumer confidence is somewhat encouraging though. This takes on added importance since it will be the overall strength of the economy that determines whether the consumption tax is hiked further to 10% in December.

Moreover, if the inflation data over the summer fail to pick up as the BoJ expects, we could see them starting to consider expanding the JPY60-70tr QQE (qualitative and quantitative easing) programme. At present, the underlying (ex-consumption tax hike) core CPI measure stands at 1.4%. The BoJ expects inflation to decline to about 1.0% over the summer before picking up again, and moving back in the direction of 2.0% by 2015. We think that this target will be missed, and an expansion in QQE is therefore more likely to be in early 2015, as it becomes more likely that inflation is on an undershooting trajectory.

Source: ING

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July 25, 2014: UK 2Q14 GDP growth has come in at 0.8%QoQ or 3.1% YoY, in line with market expectations. This is the fastest rate of annual GDP growth since 4Q 2007 and means that the UK economy has finally regained all of the lost output from the recession.

At this stage we just get an industry led breakdown, which shows that service sector output drove growth in 2Q, rising 1%QoQ. In contrast, manufacturing output rose only 0.2%QoQ, total production industry rose 0.4% and construction output fell 0.5%.

However, we believe that it is just temporary softness in these indicators with business surveys, such as the purchasing managers’ indices, suggesting activity and order books remain very firm.

Indeed, the Bank of England believe on their measures that the economy grew 0.9% in 2Q and expect Q1 GDP to be eventually revised up to 0.9% from the 0.8% currently reported. Furthermore, there are going to be significant revisions to the UK GDP statistics this September with a briefing paper released in June suggesting that the recession may have been shallower than originally thought — to the tune of around 1% of GDP.

These revisions will bring the UK in line with international conventions and will likely show that the UK actually got back to its pre-crisis size at the turn of the year. The revisions will also show that the level of UK activity is around 5% greater than currently published as coverage is expanded to include more categories such as research & development and weapons production for the first time.

The key outcome from all this will be to suggest that the UK has less spare capacity than previously thought and so inflation pressures could start to build earlier than currently forecast by the BoE. As such, it is likely to support our view that the BoE will end up tightening monetary policy sooner rather than later with November being our favoured date for the first rate hike.

Source: ING

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