Young economist stands out with maverick rate call

Toronto

THOMAS Costerg went out on a limb this week. The 29-year-old Standard Chartered economist predicted that the Bank of Canada would cut its key interest rate by 50 basis points in March, alone among veteran market watchers who saw no rate move for the full year. In a shock move, the central bank cut rates by a quarter percentage point on Wednesday.

Mr Costerg, who graduated from the University of Paris in 2007, played down his maverick forecast, saying that others could have reached the same conclusion had they focused on the data. "Some analysts may have been drinking from the forward guidance fountain a bit too much," he said from StanChart's New York office where he moved to in 2013 from London. "Putting a non-consensus rate cut fuels debate internally and with clients, so it feels good to be on the right side."