Major Central Banks Shift Hawkishly as Twelve Move Towards Higher Interest Rates

Twelve of the world's major central banks have shifted their policy sentiment to become more hawkish over the past year, despite some having left interest rates unchanged. This is according to data from Permutable's Central Bank Policy Outlook, which ranks 14 major central banks by directional policy-outlook sentiment over a trailing 30-day window.

The Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan sit at the hawkish end of the distribution, with scores of +99.4 and +36.0 respectively. However, only Russia and Brazil have moved in a more dovish direction over twelve months, with scores of -44.4 and -96.0.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand recorded the largest shift towards a hawkish sentiment at +139.9, taking its current reading to +87.1 after raising the official cash rate to 2.50% on July 8th. Australia remains dovish with a score of -30.8 but has moved 136.8 points in a more hawkish direction.