Business New Europe: Sanctions “unbearable” for EU, will be cancelled in 3 months

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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Danske Bank – August 13, 2014) We analyse the economic and financial impact of the Ukrainian crisis with a special focus on our footprint Nordic markets. We view the situation in Ukraine as far from de-escalating as fighting continues in Donetsk and Lugansk, which we expect to weigh on market sentiments near term.

However, we believe an escalating trade war would be unbearable for both Russia and the EU and that the EU will revoke the sanctions within one to three months, with Russia abolishing its own sanctions.

Both the EU and Russia have too much to lose if the bilateral energy trade is not kept out of the conflict. Consequently, the risk of a near-term supply disruption is limited with modest impact on oil and gas prices.

The Ukrainian crisis will have a modest direct impact on the European economy given manageable trade and financial links for the bigger economies. Instead, the biggest risk to EU activity is likely to come from negative sentiment.

Of the Nordic countries, Finland is clearly the most vulnerable due to trade, tourism and foreign direct investment (FDI) links. We have revised our 2014 Finland GDP forecast down to -0.2%.

The Ukrainian crisis should have limited impact on the Scandinavian countries, with Norway potentially gaining over the longer term if the EU substitutes Russian gas with Norwegian gas. However, this would mainly strengthen public finances unless the conflict is prolonged.

We expect the PLN, CZK, HUF and EUR to continue to underperform on the Ukrainian crisis. However, stabilisation of the crisis should trigger a relief rally in Eastern European currencies. We see the crisis as marginally positive for the NOK relative to the SEK and DKK given lower trade links and potential EU gas import substitution towards Norway and away from Russia.

If the newsflow out of Ukraine stabilises, we expect the global fixed income markets to give back some of their recent gains. This would mean higher rates in the US and steeper curves in EUR core and swap markets.

We believe the recent sell-off in equities is a reflection not of changes in fundamentals but of political turmoil. However, a number of Nordic companies are exposed to the Ukrainian crisis where Finnish and selective Swedish accounts stand out. We examine the individual companies’ links to Russia.

Geopolitical risks have surged further as Russia hits back at sanction-imposing countries, limiting agricultural products and food imports from them. Last week, on 6 August 2014, Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree banning completely imports of meat (beef, pork, poultry) and meat products, fish, milk and dairy products, vegetables and fruits from Australia, Canada, the EU, Norway and the United States. The ban is due to last for one year but can be abolished earlier. In the decree, the government urges Russian authorities not to let Ôprices on agricultural products, raw materials and foods to increase’. The decree came into force on 7 August. At the same time, the Russian government is considering banning the EU and the US airlines from transiting through Russian territory to Asia. The government has already banned transit of Ukrainian airlines over Russian airspace.

Russia’s food imports from the EU account for approximately USD15bn per year but the value of the trade sanctions will be less than this, because alcohol and some processed food, such as coffee and bakery items, can still be imported. However, at a country level, the effect of Russian sanctions could be more dramatic for the Baltic countries, Finland and Poland, which export large amounts of fruit, vegetables and dairy products to Russia.

For example, Finnish food exports to Russia account for 25% of all food exports. This is around EUR450m annually.

Geopolitical risks in focus again In a TV interview, last week Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski warned Russia about the impact of a conventional war in Europe. Bloomberg reported that according to Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Poland has reason to believe that the risk of an incursion is greater than a few days ago. NATO stated that it sees a risk that Russian troops will enter Ukraine under the Ôpretext’ of a humanitarian or peacekeeping mission.

We view the situation in Ukraine as far from de-escalating as fighting continues in Donetsk and Lugansk, where more than 1,000 people have been killed since April 2014, according to the UN. The UN refugee agency UNHCR stated that according to the Russian authorities more than 168,000 displaced people applied to Russia’s federal migration service in the first seven months of this year. The UNHCR estimates that the number of people displaced in eastern Ukraine is 117,000.

What’s next?

We see the current situation as being far from stable and in equilibrium. Our basecase scenario suggests an escalating trade war would be unbearable for both parties and that the EU will revoke the sanctions within one to three months, with Russia abolishing its own. Even if the food import ban gives some support to local food producers in Russia, the short-term effect would be an acceleration in prices with the CPI approaching 8% y/y in 2014. This means we would see tighter monetary policy in Russia, which would enforce a demand-side shock. The supply-side shock would increase in banned imports and thorough continuing capital outflows deepening long-term economic prospects. Despite tightening monetary policy, we expect Bank Rossii to keep providing good liquidity for local banks and believe it will try to avoid FX intervention as recent data show that the RUB is not weak enough: the real effective exchange rate has risen 1.4% year-to-date.

Currently, Putin’s support inside Russia remains very strong, hitting five-year highs. As economic growth is slowing gradually without considerable drama, we do not see a significant political risk in Russia. In the current economic environment, Russia is planning to tighten its economic and political links with Latin American and Asian countries. Nevertheless, a sudden escalation of the situation surrounding Ukraine could trigger new turmoil for Russian markets, hitting Russian private consumers further.

We still expect the Russian economy to shrink 0.3% y/y this year and fall 1.8% y/y in 2015 as the continuity of current sanctions is still unsure. However, we see further downside risks from demand and supply shocks for our 2015 GDP forecasts.

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