USD/CNH SHOWS WILD MOVES AFTER UPBEAT CHINA’S GDP AND RETAIL SALES DATA

The USD/CNH pair has shown a wild gyration after the release of upbeat China’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data. China’s GDP has expanded by 2.2% in the first quarter of CY2023 as expected by the market participants. On an annual basis, China’s growth rate data has soared to 4.5% vs. the expectations of 4.0% and the former release of 2.9%.

A significant jump in Chinese GDP figures indicates that the economy is capitalizing on monetary support provided by the government and the People’s Bank of China (PBoC). However, the growth rate is not consistent with the anticipation made for the whole year, which is around 5%.

March Retail Sales jumped dramatically to 10.6% while the street was anticipating acceleration by 7.4%. This indicates that robust demand from households would allow firms to hike the prices of goods and services at factory gates and eventually will take the economy out of the disinflationary process.

Later this week, PBoC’s interest rate decision will be keenly watched. Last week, the PBoC promised of providing further monetary support to step up retail demand. Chinese inflation is continuously declining for the past few months despite the reopening of the economy after lockdown curbs.

Meanwhile, S&P500 futures are showing topsy-turvy moves as major United States banks are going to report their earnings ahead. Investors are worried that the impact of banking turmoil, seen in March, could dampen other banks’ asset performance. The US Dollar Index (DXY) is continuously performing sideways around 102.10