The monetary policy winds blow from Tashkent

In 2015, monetary policy changes have been the biggest market movers.

The headline events have been from the European Central Bank, which announced a new quantitative easing program in January; the Swiss National Bank, which unexpectedly removed the peg of the Swiss franc against the euro; and the Danish central bank cutting interest rates four times in just three weeks.

And after another strong jobs report from the US, markets are waiting to see if the Federal Reserve will buck this trend and raise interest rates this year.

In a note to clients summing up the week's events, economists at Deutsche Bank give a quick overview of this easing trend in global monetary.

And in what might come as a surprise to you, it all started in Uzbekistan.

From Deutsche Bank:

Fashion trends are set in Milan or Paris but the monetary policy winds blow from Tashkent. The Uzbekistan central bank set the tone for 2015 with the year' first interest rate cut on 5 January. Since then half the G20 has followed, including Australia and China this week. Markets are enthralled. Equity indices in the ten G20 countries to have eased this year are up seven per cent on average, handily beating the three per cent gains for the other ten. However, the superior stock market gains are accompanied by an average four per cent fall against the dollar in the currencies of policy easing nations, whereas exchange rates for the others remain unchanged. The net result: stock returns in dollar terms for those following the "Tashkent Trend" and those bucking it average the same two per cent this year.