The four-year synchronization among developed-world central banks might be about to weaken as domestic drivers take over from global trends in determining price outlooks.
A pioneer of inflation targeting in the early 1990s, New Zealand has a knack of setting trends in monetary policy. And it may do so again by snapping the policy uniformity, with traders pricing the possibility of an interest-rate hike that ANZ Bank economists say could come as soon as Feb. 28.
There’s potential for the convergence trend to crack elsewhere too. In the U.S., proof that inflation remains sticky and the labor market sound has convinced traders to embrace the Federal Reserve’s pushback against market bets on near-term easing.