There has been a saying in India of late: ‘India never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity’. This is in stark contrast to the Chinese aphorism that President Xi Jinping referred to while addressing the British parliament in October: ‘An opportunity missed is an opportunity lost’. No one would deny that India has great potential. However, over the last three decades there has been a sense that it has failed to fulfil this.
As China’s growth is decelerating, Chinese purchasing power is accelerating. The next five-year plan will boost the change.
Only a few years ago, China still enjoyed double-digit growth. According to third-quarter data, the Chinese economy grew 6.9 percent year-on-year.
As a result, some observers have concluded that the Chinese economy is in trouble, Chinese consumers are hunkering down and the next five-year plan must be dead on arrival.
Almost every nation covets a higher spot on the World Bank’s ease of doing business list. Higher ratings represent the capacity to attract and maintain foreign investors and the resulting economic boost they bring with them. This year, India has done the nearly unthinkable, jumping 12 spots up the rankings from 189 to 130.
After much internal wrangling, China’s State Council and Communist Party Central Committee have released new guidelines for reforming state-owned enterprises (SOEs). China’s economic reform is setup to balance less formal state interference with more informal Party influence. To the delight of technocrats, the new SOE guidelines draw heavily on modern corporate governance principles that are designed to insulate business management from administrative meddling.
The Irish poet WB Yeats was not thinking about Southeast Asia when he wrote ‘things fall apart; the centre cannot hold’, but his words may accurately describe the situation in Malaysia. The monarchy governing the state of Johor is rattling the federation agreement and talking of secession. Sarawak wants significant devolution. In addition, Sabah is gearing up for the same demand.
So is secession a real possibility? In addition, why has the issue of federalism suddenly emerged after half a century of relative calm?
It was a close call. After Australia’s leading banks lifted the variable rate mortgage rates recently, many observers expected the Reserve Bank of Australia to offset the tightening with a rate cut in early November. Others emphasized that the variable rate increases were linked to regulatory changes not to financial conditions that the RBA could influence.
Today’s inflation report swung sentiment toward a rate cut next week. It appears that the derivatives market is pricing in about an 80% chance of a 25 bp rate cut.
By the time I met Grace, she had been in Australia on a bridging visa for about 18 months. Part way into the interview, she reached for a stack of papers in her bag. “Let me show you something… this is from the bank,” she said. On her account statement, Grace showed me the recurring payments she was receiving from a non-profit agency that was disbursing basic living allowances to asylum seekers living in the community. She was receiving about A$450 per fortnight.
The House of Lords has voted to delay the government’s plans to cut tax credits. The cuts form a significant component (more than a third) of the Conservative government’s plans to reduce the UK’s welfare bill by £12 billion. However, George Osborne failed to sufficiently make the case to the upper house that they were part of a wider plan to create an economy that rewards “hard-working people.”
The South Korean economy rebounded from July to September, expanding 2.6 percent after struggling with a deadly outbreak and a sluggish economy, according to AP. The growth was steered by recoveries in consumer spending and construction, but the economy suffered a decline in exports due to a lack of demand from China. The Q3 growth rate marks the fastest performance in South Korea in over five years.
There is still no date for the UK’s EU referendum and the deadline of 2017 may seem a long way off, but the “In” campaign is starting late and on the back foot for several reasons. Most Britons are naturally Eurosceptic and many are seriously ill informed about the benefits of EU membership. The subject is, in reality, too big, too complex, and too far-reaching for most to comprehend.
