Australia’s central bank Governor Michele Bullock said judging the economy is “a little bit more difficult” now than in previous periods when it was raising interest rates, reinforcing her cautious policy stance. In the post-Covid period, when inflation was headed to 8% and interest rates were zero, it was clear policy needed to be tightened quickly, the Reserve Bank chief said during a fireside c...
Australia’s central bank Governor Michele Bullock said judging the economy is “a little bit more difficult” now than in previous periods when it was raising interest rates, reinforcing her cautious policy stance. In the post-Covid period, when inflation was headed to 8% and interest rates were zero, it was clear policy needed to be tightened quickly, the Reserve Bank chief said during a fireside chat in Melbourne on Wednesday evening. “Now we’re in a situation where the labor market, we think, is a little bit tight, inflation is a bit elevated, I don’t think it’s taking off again,” she said. “We thought the economy was in balance, maybe it’s a little tighter than we thought.” “It’s not like we’ve got a situation where it’s very clear what we have to do,” Bullock said, adding that “people have to be patient.” The RBA three weeks ago became the first monetary authority in the world to raise rates this year as it tries to rein in resurgent inflation. Bullock spoke a few hours after monthly inflation for January came in hotter than anticipated, holding above the top of the RBA’s 2-3% target, and following a report last week showing unemployment was still low at 4.1%. Read more: Australia’s Persistent Inflation Bolsters RBA Rate-Hike Bets While the governor was asked directly about how she read the latest jobs and price data, she opted instead to go back to the middle of last year to describe how the RBA was then in a mild easing cycle as consumer price gains were slowing and the labor market appeared to be loosening somewhat. She pointed out how quickly things then turned with credit recovering strongly, house prices rising and inflation starting to pick up. That meant that by February, the RBA’s board recognized that inflation was “now too high” and wasn’t forecast to come back to target very soon “without some action on financial conditions.” The bank then raised the cash rate to 3.85%, unwinding some of the 75 basis points of easing it delivered between February and ...
FREDERICA ABAN/iStock via Getty Images Market Overview Global equities advanced in the fourth quarter, closing 2025 on a positive note despite intermittent volatility. Markets were driven higher by robust AI-infrastructure spending, strong corporate earnings, and a liquidity boost from the US Federal Reserve (Fed). Amid a relatively positive economic backdrop, the European Central Bank left rates ...
FREDERICA ABAN/iStock via Getty Images Market Overview Global equities advanced in the fourth quarter, closing 2025 on a positive note despite intermittent volatility. Markets were driven higher by robust AI-infrastructure spending, strong corporate earnings, and a liquidity boost from the US Federal Reserve (Fed). Amid a relatively positive economic backdrop, the European Central Bank left rates unchanged, while easing UK inflation led the Bank of England to lower rates in December. In Japan, Sanae Takaichi was elected prime minister as the Liberal Democratic Party formed a minority coalition with the Japan Innovation Party. The Bank of Japan raised its policy rate by 25 basis points* to 0.75%, signaling further hikes in 2026. The MSCI ACWI ex USA Growth Index returned 2. 56% for the quarter. Within the index, eight out of 11 sectors rose for the period. Information technology and utilities were the top performing sectors, while communication services and consumer discretionary were the bottom performing sectors for the quarter. Performance Summary The Hartford International Growth Fund (I share)( HNCJX ) underperformed the MSCI ACWI ex USA Growth Net Index during the quarter. Strong selection within information technology, healthcare, and industrials was partially offset by selection in consumer discretionary and financials. Sector allocation, a result of our bottom-up stock selection process, detracted from results. An overweight allocation to communication services and not having exposure to materials detracted most, partially offset by our overweight to information technology. Our top two relative contributors were overweight positions in SK hynix (information technology) and Taiwan Semiconductor (information technology). Top relative detractors were an out-of-benchmark position in Flutter Entertainment (consumer discretionary) and overweight position in Rheinmetall (industrials). Positioning & Outlook Fourth-quarter performance was shaped by a mix of supportiv...