Central banks are realising that over a year of aggressive monetary policies might not have been enough to fight inflation. Financial conditions remain loose, governments continue t implement expansionary fiscal policies, and the economy is not decelerating at the expected pace. There is more tightening to do, which will continue to drive yield curves to a deeper inversion in the third quarter of the year. However, additional interest rate hikes might not work as intended. That's why policymakers must consider the active disinvestment of central banks' balance sheets to lift yields in the long part of the yield curve. As the hiking cycle approaches its end, the corporate and sovereign bond markets will provide enticing opportunities in the front part of the yield curve.

The way forward: active quantitative tightening becomes preferrable over rate hikes

Despite being officially ended, quantitative easing and big central banks’ balance sheets remain the core issue to sticky inflation. 

The joint balance sheet of the Federal Reserve and the ECB is above $15 trillion. Currently, both central banks are not actively selling their balance sheets as they have chosen not to reinvest part of their maturing securities. Calling such a strategy “Quantitative Tightening” is just a way for them to talk hawkish and act dovish. They know that to fight the inflation boogeyman, long term yields need to rise, and the way to do that is to actively disinvest their balance sheets, which are composed of long-term bonds. The outcome might be the opposite if central banks choose to hike rates beyond expectations. The higher the benchmark rate, the more likely long-term sovereign yields will begin to drop, as markets forecast a deep recession. Such a move would work against the central banks’ tightening agenda.

Thus, it’s safe to expect that the tightening cycle will come to an end in the second half of the year as more interest rate hikes than those expected by markets would just further invert yield curves rather than have a significant impact on inflation.

As the tightening cycle approaches its end, we expect Federal Reserve and ECB officials to begin to talk about balance sheet disinvestments. At that point, yield curves will begin to steepen, driven by the rise of long-term yields. The front part of the yield curve might start to descend, as markets anticipate the beginning of a rate-cutting cycle. However, if interest rate cut expectations are pushed further in the future, there is a chance that they will remain underpinned for a period. Yet, this path is less certain, as it depends on the ability of policy makers to keep rate cut expectations at bay and the capability of the economy to endure periods of higher volatility. It is at this point that we expect the market to rotate from risky assets to risk-free assets, bursting the bubble created by decades of QE.

We expect the first central bank to end the rate hiking cycle to be the Federal Reserve, while the ECB will need to hike a few additional times to bring the real ECB deposit rate further up. The Bank of England might need to hike into the new year, diverging further from its pee