What Does Hawkish Mean?

What does Hawkish mean? We've heard it a lot lately in the financial news. "RBA maintaining a hawkish stance", "Yen gains as BOJ keeps up hawkish rhetoric", "Paris shares close higher, supported by less hawkish ECB comments", " Euro gains brief boost from hawkish Trichet comments" and "RNBZ Gets Hawkish, And Does Nothing". We all know that a hawk (noun) is a, "relatively small diurnal bird of prey with short rounded wings and very good eyesight which hunts by pouncing on small birds and mammals." To go hawking (verb) is to hunt with a hawk. To be hawkish – the adjective form of the word is simply described as "like a hawk". So in financial terms, what is the definition for hawkish?

The definition of hawkish is this: it is an aggressive stance. Just as a hawk is aggressive in hunting its prey, being hawkish relates to the aggressive stance taken with regard to the topic. For example, if there is a threat of high inflation, to describe the reserve bank of a country being hawkish in any official statement may mean they are leaning towards a stronger action such as favouring an increase in interest rates to dampen high inflation. The antonym (opposite) to hawkish is dovish. Good luck in your trading!