Passenger traffic through Dubai jumps in 2023

Passenger traffic through Dubai International Airport rose 31.7% y/y in 2023, to reach almost 87 million travellers. The 2023 figure takes airport passenger numbers back above 2019 pre-pandemic levels. The top destinations were India, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. Passenger traffic is expected to rise further in 2024, increasing to 88.8 million guests.

Consumer prices in Oman fell in January, for the first time since March 2021. Oman CPI, which has been slowing steadily since peaking in January 2022, fell 0.1% y/y, after rising 0.6% the month prior. In contrast, Qatar’s January CPI print rose 2.99% y/y, up sharply from the 1.65% recorded in December. However, on a monthly basis Qatar consumer price inflation fell 1.3% m/m.

Chinese banks cut the five-year Loan Prime Rate by 25bps to 3.95%, despite the PBOC holding rates unchanged on Monday. The interest rate cut was the first in eight months and also the largest on record, and should provide some support to the struggling property market.

Today’s Economic Data and Events

• 19:00 US Conference board leading indicator, Jan. Forecast: -0.3% m/m

Fixed Income

• US Treasury markets were closed for a holiday on Monday.
• European bond markets were fairly quiet at the start of the week albeit with a modest downward bias. Yields on 10yr gilts were essentially unchanged at 4.106% while bund yield added almost 1bps to 2.408%.
• Overall it was a quiet day on bond markets with a broad emerging market index closing unchanged while high-yield bonds were also flat.

FX

• Currency markets had a quiet start to the week with EURUSD closing virtually unchanged at 1.0779 while GBPUSD settled at 1.2584, a modest downward move. USDJPY pushed lower, dropping less than 0.1% to 150.13.
• Commodity currencies showed a bit more movement with AUDUSD up 0.1% to 0.654 while NZDUSD added 0.4% to 0.615. USDCAD nudged marginally higher to 1.3491.

Equities

• US equity markets were closed for a holiday on Monday.
• Moves in major European equity markets were muted on Monday, after nearing record highs on Friday. The Eurostoxx 50 index fell 0.05%, the DAX declined 0.15% and the CAC 40 was unchanged. The FTSE 100 in contrast rose 0.22%.
• Regional markets closed mixed. The DFM pulled higher by 0.3% while the ADX dropped by 0.2%. The Tadawul managed a strong 0.7% gain.

Commodities

• Brent markets traded modestly higher overnight, up 0.1% to USD 83.56/b, while there was no settlement on WTI thanks to a US public holiday. Iraq’s oil minister said the country will increase its compliance with OPEC+ targets after over-producing in January by around 200k b/d.