| US dollar forecast revisions 􀂄 Renewed investor interest
 The dollar has begun to dip again on the world’s foreign exchange markets,
 drawing the attention of investors. In this note we explore the reasons for the
 dollar’s decline and provide revised forecasts.
 􀂄 The wrong reasons
 Various arguments are put forth to explain the dollar’s weakness. These include
 excessive Fed money printing, increased inflation risk, large US budget deficits,
 doubts about sustainability of the US recovery, and dollar overvaluation. While
 many of these factors might eventually push the dollar lower, none provides a
 convincing explanation for dollar weakness in 2009.
 􀂄 What’s at work
 Instead, dollar weakness reflects declining risk aversion (and hence reduced
 demand for US dollar liquidity) and, possibly, increased ‘carry’ activity funded in
 dollars. Moreover, growth has surprisingly resurfaced in Europe and Japan ahead
 of the US. Finally, investors may be (correctly) anticipating that the decline in the
 US trade deficit is over.
 􀂄 Revised forecasts
 We now forecast year-end 2009 EUR/USD at 1.40 (was 1.30) and 2010 1.50 (was
 1.40). The corresponding yen rates are 95 (was 100) and 90 (was 95). We maintain
 year-end 2009 and 2010 US dollar forecasts versus the Chinese renminbi of 6.80
 and 6.60, respectively
 􀂄 Benign dollar decline?
 For now, dollar weakness is benign, in our view. It reflects lessening investor risk
 aversion. However, imbalances in the world economy remain significant. US
 external deficits increasingly reflect large structural fiscal deficits, which if left
 unaddressed pose significant medium-term risks for the dollar.
 
 US dollar forecast revisions
 In this note we consider the outlook for the US dollar against the euro and the
 Japanese yen. The dollar’s direction has become a source of greater investor
 interest in recent weeks, given its gradual weakening in the world’s foreign
 exchange markets. As a result, the dollar is now significantly weaker than we
 had forecasted for year-end 2009 (namely, EUR/USD 1.30 and USD/JPY 100),
 prompting the forecast revisions which we outline below.
 In what follows, we assess various drivers of the dollar’s external value and how
 these are likely to evolve over the coming year. We also consider the risks to our
 new dollar forecasts.
 What can not explain dollar weakness?
 Various cases are offered to explain the dollar’s movements. While all currency
 models have a distressing habit of breaking down sooner or later, it is
 nevertheless possible to separate plausible reasons for the dollar’s recent dip
 from those that don’t add up. We begin with arguments that aren’t persuasive:
 􀁑 The Fed is printing too much money. So long as bank lending remains
 anaemic, the expansion of the Fed’s balance sheet is having little impact on
 the supply of dollars in the broader economy or financial markets, including
 the foreign exchange market. To the point, rate of total bank credit growth
 continues to decelerate. In short, the Fed has created plenty of ‘high-powered
 money’, but it largely sits idle on bank balance sheets and is having little
 direct impact on economic activity or most asset prices, including currency
 values.
 The US is faced with resurgent inflation. Fears of high inflation would be
 negative for the dollar. However, near- and long-term inflation expectations
 are well-behaved and provide little evidence to suggest that investors are
 fretting about price pressures in the US economy.
 Investors are worried about US budget deficits. Large budget deficits, if
 left unaddressed, would pose significant challenges for the US dollar. But
 presumably they would be even more problematic for the US Treasury
 market. Yet with bond yields low, it appears that investors are—for now—
 not concerned about US government financing risk.
 􀁑 The US is in the midst of a ‘false’ recovery. If US growth were expected to
 falter, the dollar would probably weaken in the currency markets. Yet if that
 were the consensus expectation among investors, equity and credit markets
 would also be giving up ground. Their ongoing strength, in contrast, suggests
 that growth expectations, per se, are not the source of recent dollar softness.
 􀁑 The dollar is overvalued. On our estimates, it is actually the euro that
 screens as somewhat overvalued, with a bilateral PPP rate of about
 EUR/USD 1.20. The dollar is near fair value against the yen (PPP of
 USD/JPY 95.0). The dollar is, in our view, significantly overvalued against
 the renminbi. The dollar ought to fall versus the renminbi, but, courtesy of
 significant reserve accumulation by the Chinese authorities, is prevented
 from doing so.
 What can explain dollar weakness?
 To be sure, several of the preceding reasons might eventually become sources of
 dollar weakness. Ruling them out today does not mean ruling them out
 indefinitely. However, we think the drivers of recent dollar weakness lie
 elsewhere.
 One factor that helps to explain the dollar’s softness this year is the resumption
 of more normal risk-seeking behaviour in the capital markets. That observation
 is borne out by the correlation between our UBS Risk Indicator and the
 EUR/USD exchange rate or, alternatively, the correlation between the dollar’s
 value and our measure of the implied equity risk premium.
 These relationships require some elaboration. While the dollar has often been
 viewed as a ‘safe haven’ currency, its performance over the past year—
 strengthening sharply just as the US financial system and economy were on the
 verge of imploding—seems odd. However, during the extraordinary stresses of
 last autumn, investors prized liquidity above all else. And no currency (or capital
 market) can match the liquidity found in the US.
 Hence, receding demand for liquidity this year as the financial system has
 stabilized helps to explain the dollar’s decline, coincident with the recovery of
 markets (falling equity risk premiums) and the normalization of risk indicators.
 Yet these relationships may also embed more than just a normalization of risk
 appetite. If investors are now genuinely seeking higher returns, the low interest
 rate environment provided by the Fed may be contributing to dollar weakness
 via ‘carry’. In other words, expectations of low and stable funding costs may be
 encouraging some investors to borrow in US dollars to invest in various assets,
 including foreign currencies and equities (e.g., emerging equities). In this sense,
 ‘carry’ is different from the usual interest differential approach to currency
 modelling. After all, interest differentials (short- or long-term) do not appear to
 explain very well the dollar’s movements against the euro in recent years.
 Relative growth rates may also be at work. Earlier this year when we forecasted
 year-end 2009 exchange rates of EUR/USD 1.30 and USD/JPY 100, we
 anticipated that the dollar would benefit from an earlier recovery of the US
 economy. That view, in turn, was predicated on the more convincing monetary,
 fiscal, and financial policies adopted over the past year in the US than
 elsewhere.
 However, that’s not the way things have turned out. Various European countries,
 led by Germany, were the first to post positive GDP in Q2. So, too, did Japan.
 Meanwhile, the US economy continued to shrink through mid-2009. Partly,
 those outcomes have to do with the fact that the inventory liquidation was
 nearing completion by mid-year, allowing trade and production to recover. That
 rebound has benefitted the more trade-oriented German and Japanese economies
 than the US. And for Japan, in particular, China’s recovery has also helped to
 lift exports.
 Finally, the US dollar may also softening on expectations that the improvement
 in the US trade and current account deficits witnessed thus far in the cycle is
 now coming to an end. Indeed, last month’s sharp widening of the US
 merchandise trade deficit likely marks the turning point for the US external
 accounts. Why? Because the US external position was undoubtedly flattered
 over the past eighteen months by recession-induced import weakness, as well as
 by last year’s sharp fall in energy prices. A collapse of inventories, in particular,
 contributed to sharp fall in imports. As the inventory liquidation cycle
 concludes, so too will the fall in imports. The implication: A bigger US trade
 deficit is on the way. Our US team forecasts a current account deficit (as a
 percentage of GDP) of 2.7% this year, rising to 3.0% in 2010.
 So, as US growth and final demand now begin to normalize (note the sharp
 jump in August US retail sales), imports are likely to pick up again. To be sure,
 US export growth will benefit from similar developments overseas. However, a
 large initial trade deficit (meaning exports must grow faster than imports to
 close the gap) and a higher propensity of the US to import than in its trading
 partners suggests the return to ever-widening US trade and current account
 deficits over the next few years.==========================
 
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