Over the last week, Egypt (+2.4%), Korea (+0.8%), and India (+0.7%) have outperformed in the EM equity space as measured by MSCI, while Brazil (-9.4%), Colombia (-8.0%), and Turkey (-7.7%) have underperformed. To put this in better context, MSCI EM fell -2.2% over the past week while MSCI DM fell -1.0%.
Despite poor weather that appears to have effected other February data, the US jobs report is stronger than expected. The economy grew 295k net new jobs, nearly all accounted for by the private sector (+288k).
Some of the other details were not as impressive, but should be sufficient to boost confidence that the Federal Reserve drops the “patience” from its forward guidance later this month, keeping a June rate hike on the table.
As China appears to be flirting with the middle income trap, the old development model is becoming increasingly unworkable. In its place, the ‘new normal’ is emerging as a valuable notion. But to work it needs increased corporate competition, integrated labour markets, sharper land rights for farmers, and much less debt accumulation. On these points, Chinese policies fall short and are risk trapping China at middle income.
Japan’s work-life imbalance kills thousands of workers every year and it’s also partly to blame for the nation’s disastrously low birth rate and declining productivity. The Government is taking steps to change the culture, but is it too deep-rooted?
China’s international energy investments and acquisitions have drawn much interest from foreign observers. Some analysts tend to believe that it represents a national energy procurement strategy driven by the central government.
In the past decade the worldwide yoga industry has become a multi-billion-dollar business. Yet, ironically, the one country where yoga does not yet thrive commercially is the very place from which yoga is thought to originate: India. Why should this be?
This paradox emerges, in part, because the practice known as ‘yoga’ around the world is a modern invention of the globalised and capitalist 20th century. A brief look at the history of yoga may help to explain why this industry has not had a straightforward development in India.
On 25 February, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe convened the first meeting of a new special advisory council, the Commission on a Framework for the 21st Century. The rather ambiguously and grandiosely named council is to meet with him over the coming months, presenting the results of their deliberations on five topics.
As long as the labor market remains resilient and structural reforms deepen, the living standards of individual Chinese will continue to rise fast.
China’s central bank cut the benchmark deposit and loan interest rates by 25 basis points from Sunday, which has been widely interpreted as an effort to prop up economic growth, which has been slowing.
American companies and consumers are spending less even as personal income is growing in a sign that economic growth is under threat.
Several new economic indicators released on Monday indicate that U.S. economic activity is slowing because of disinflation and lowered demand. At the same time, the Bureau of Economic Analysis shows that personal income is rising. Although some economists expected a rise in incomes to coincide with a rise in spending, in reality money velocity and liquidity are in fact falling as more Americans choose to save.
India’s economy has been growing steadily for quite a few years. Along with high growth comes inevitable inflation. In response, Indian policymakers have decided on a new strategy to target inflation as they gear up for even stronger growth in coming years.
The new policy, dated February 20, indicates that the government will target inflation growth to 4 percent, with room for variance of plus or minus 2 percent. The policy also directs the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to bring inflation below 6 percent by January 2016.
