Lena Komileva

 

 

Lena Komileva, City veteran and chief economist of market research and economic intelligence consultancy (g+)economics, has spent two decades advising chief executives across investment banking, custodial, brokerage, hedge funds and long-term asset allocation, advising institutions such as the CFA Institute, the World Gold Council, McKinsey & Co, central banks, pensions, and the UK public sector. From the heart of global capital markets, Lena has an enviable track record of ahead-of-consensus strategic calls on structural shifts in the global economy including the 2007-9 financial crisis, the euro debt crisis, and the post-pandemic global inflation shock, accurately predicting policy responses and the impact on asset prices and long-term market trends. Lena is regularly invited as expert speaker at policy and industry forums, she writes columns for the Financial Times and Bloomberg Opinion, and is a regular expert economist voice on Bloomberg TV, CNBC, BBC News, Sky News, frequently quoted in the FT, WSJ, Reuters and Bloomberg News. 

 

Track Record

 

Lena Komileva was one of the very first economists to draw the link between a systemic regime change in global market dynamics, credit multipliers in real economies, recession risk and the central bank response in early 2007. After accurately calling the end of the Fed tightening cycle in response to subprime stresses in February 2007, months ahead of the consensus, she wrote about the “impending credit crunch” on 1 June 2007, as stress signals from US subprime securitisation sectors reached European bond market volatility gauges, accurately predicting the balance sheet risk transmission from debt to equity markets and the collapse of the FX carry trade over the weeks that followed.

 

By January 2008, her economic model showed 85% probability that the US was already in a recession – twelve months before the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) confirmed it. As “dislocated money markets” – a term that Lena coined in the summer of 2007 - defied central banks’ short term liquidity stabilisation measures – Lena’s article in FX Week in March 2008, arguing that the disconnect between elevated emerging market asset valuations and riskier developed market credit impulses was unsustainable, became a prophesy for the steady rise and dispersion of market volatility in the summer of 2008. This ultimately culminated with the collapse of Lehman and the nationalisation of US mortgage markets in 2008, and the start of a new era of central bank policy making that centred on balance sheet size, market liquidity risk premia and deflation tail risk probability management, over traditional rate and inflation targeting.

 

For the past decade, Lena’s early “lower for longer” calls on market rates, against repeated consensus calls for early tightening from the Fed, the ECB and the BoE in the years between 2009 and 2014, preceded the steady flattening of the US and European core government bond yield curves.

 

In recent years, Lena has repeatedly warned that the decoupling between the US business and financial cycle is harbouring distortions in US and global risk asset pricing, with significant consequences for the economic risk cycle. Her early calls on market policy mispricing and peak cycle dynamics over the course of 2017, and in particular her call that US 10yr yields are unjustifiably low in August 2017, have resonated strongly with the shift in the global policy tide over the past year and the return of market volatility in 2018.  

 

Today Lena advises top tier investment decision-makers on financial, macro-economic and policy developments across core G+ markets, as managing partner and chief economist at (g+)economics, a market research and economic intelligence consultancy based in London. With over two decades advising CEOs in banking, custodial, wealth management and legal and regulatory consulting services as head of market economics for the largest European government bonds broker in the world, Lena a regular voice at policy and industry forums, and an economic adviser, working with such institutions as the CFA Institute, the World Gold Council, McKinsey & Co., and the UK Parliament among others. Lena is a regular contributor for Bloomberg, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and the BBC, and a leading independent voice in the international policy debate on global growth themes focusing on market efficiency, international capital flows and monetary analysis.

Product and Market Expertise

 

With a wealth of experience advising top-tier institutional and policy clients, Lena has written extensively on US, UK and Euro area fundamentals combining financial, monetary and macro-economic analysis.

 

Her focus is on analysing the flow of funds between the financial industry - including the banking sector, private finance and public markets - and the real economy, and its impact on economic and financial stability and policy. Lena was among the very first to argue the global implications from the securitisation crisis in the summer of 2007, including the dislocation of money markets, next-to-zero G7 monetary policy rates, the Great Recession, the Eurozone crisis and the new role for public capital in the functioning of financial markets with the worrying side effects of long-term public debt sustainability and global financial inflation pressures. 

 

In addition to thematic strategy and economic analysis and forecasting, her product research focuses on foreign exchange, money markets and government debt, and the relationships with other asset classes such as volatility, credit, credit derivatives, equities, emerging markets and commodities.

 

Lena is a frequent contributor to Bloomberg, Reuters, Financial Times, the BBC, the WSJ among others. She is regularly invited to present at market industry forums and has contributed articles to Bloomberg Brief, the Financial Times, Reuters, FX Week and others. Her research has been extensively quoted in the international press and she gives regular TV and radio interviews.

 

MEDIA

Newsroom

FT Opinion: Markets will soon pivot to focus on sustainability of recovery   

Markets' focus will soon pivot from the speed to the sustainability of a post-lockdown recovery. The 'new post-Covid normal', after a historic symbiosis between fiscal and monetary policy, will challenge policymakers. Read the full article here. Source: www.ft.com, 25/03/2021

FT Video: Is the world really ready for higher rates? 

Is it time to ease the world economy off zero rates? Lena Komileva, chief economist at G+ Economics, argues to FT editor John Authers that productivity, employment and inflation remain low, while leverage has rebounded, so central bankers should be very careful. Source: www.ft.com

Bloomberg Opinion: Public Debt Isn't the Problem, Soaring Deficits Are 

For markets, it is not debt levels, but fear of uncontrolled debt growth, where crises are born.

 

Read the full article here. Source: Bloomberg, 15/03/2021

BBC Radio 4, "Today" Programme

BBC Radio 4: "We are beyond the domain of predictability, says Lena Komileva, managing director at G+ Economics. "Try not to predict and try to prepare." 03/2020

Think tank discussion with the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation: Lena Komileva on European currency markets

Bloomberg TV: 2021 Will be the `Bounce Back' Year for Inflation 

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In the news

 

Professional Pensions: Lena Komileva to speak at PP Investment Conference - Lena Komileva announced as keynote speaker at this year’s Investment Conference (23/11/2023) 

 

Bloomberg Opinion: How the ECB Should Begin to Normalize Monetary Policy, Bloomberg (11/04/2022) 

 

Bloomberg Opinion: 5 Central Bank Unknowns That Will Shape Markets in 2022, Bloomberg Opinion, (08/11/2021) 

 

Bloomberg Opinion: Is the ECB Ready for its Credibility Test? (13/07/2021)

 

FT Opinion: Markets will soon pivot to focus on sustainability of recovery (25/03/2021) 

 

Bloomberg Opinion | Economics: Public Debt Isn't the Problem, Soaring Deficits Are (15/03/2021)  

 

FT: ECB pledges to step up pace of stimulus to counter market sell-off (11/03/2021) 

 

Bloomberg TV: 2021 Will be the `Bounce Back' Year for Inflation - January is shaping up to be a pivotal month in determining whether the nascent U.S. reflation trade can really gather steam in 2021. "Every single bit of the market is telling us that there is an excess of financial overhang of inflation that's just waiting to ripen as we move out of the pandemic," G+ Economics Managing Partner & Chief Economist Lena Komileva said on "Bloomberg Markets: European Open." (04/01/2021) 

 

Bloomberg TV: G+ Economics Chief Economist Lena Komileva on Brexit Deal - G+ Economics Managing Partner & Chief Economist Lena Komileva speaks to Bloomberg about the historic post-Brexit deal and what it means for both the EU and the U.K.  (24/12/2020) 

 

Bloomberg Opinion | Economics: The Case for Keeping Europe’s Negative Rates Where They Are, Komileva writes for Bloomberg Opinion (14/12/2020)

 

Börsen-Zeitung: Top Eurozone economists interviewed for President Lagarde's 1 Year anniversary (27/10/2020)

 

 

FT: Fraying ECB consensus poses diplomatic challenge for Lagarde (05/10/2020) 

 

FT: ECB chief economist warns against complacency over recovery (11/09/2020)

 

Bloomberg TV: Lena Komileva gives her reaction to ECB President Lagarde’s policy press conference and the latest standoff in UK-EU Brexit negotiations. She speaks to Vonnie Quinn on Bloomberg TV (10/09/2020)

 

FT: ECB to monitor rise of euro after keeping rates on hold (10/09/2020)

 

FT: ECB to buy up ‘fallen angel’ bonds to cushion euro zone economy - Economists warn over plan to expand €750bn programme to include riskier debts (26/04/2020) 

 

FT Long View: Mind the gap between the markets and the real economy (18/04/2020) 

 

Market Talk Roundup: Coronavirus Removes Safety Net for Investors, G+ Economics Says (09/04/2020) 

 

FT Market Forces: A chasm between Wall Street and economic winter (09/04/2020) 

 

WSJ/Dow Jones: Coronavirus Removes Security of Central Bank Aid, G+ Economics Says -- Market Talk

Investors Must Learn to Reprice Assets After Pandemic -- Market Talk

Sustained Recovery Seen a Long Way Off -- Market Talk

Coronavirus Hit an Already Fragile Economy, G+ Economics Says -- Market Talk

Pandemic Amplifies Cracks in Financial System -- Market Talk

Scope for 'New Level of Entrepreneurship' After Crisis -- Market Talk (09/04/2020) 

 

International Financing Review: Fed launches repo program for foreign central banks (31/03/2020) 

 

Bloomberg TV: Global Economy Set for Battering Not Seen in Decades - The coronavirus pandemic is not a "black swan" so much as "a series of extraordinary events that have opened up several lines of global systemic fragility," according to Lena Komileva, chief economist at G Plus Economics. She speaks to Anna Edwards on "Bloomberg Markets: European Open." (25/03/2020)  

 

FT Market Forces: Softening the blow is not a cure (18/03/2020) 

 

FT Market Forces: A fiscal and monetary prescription (11/03/2020) 

 

FT: Lagarde to confront coronavirus crisis at ECB policy meeting (09/03/2020) 

 

FT: Fed decision to go it alone bucks history of collaboration (05/03/2020)

 

FT Market Forces: Failing to calm the churning waters (03/03/2020) 

 

FT: Investors seek clues on new thinking as Lagarde launches ECB review (23/01/2020) 

 

FT: ECB’s new faces give investors pause for thought over policy shifts (13/01/2020)

 

FT: Eurozone economy set to slow further in 2020 — FT poll (26/12/2019) 

 

FT poll: Christine Lagarde expected to change ECB inflation target (22/12/2019) 

 

Bloomberg Surveillance: Stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities. Lena Komileva joins Francine Lacqua in London and Tom Keene in New York. (12/12/2019)

 

FT Market Forces: Jamming the pause button for an extended period (11/12/2019)

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