Economics

The global financial crisis (GFC) that precipitated the worldwide great recession in 2008 has largely subsided. Capital markets are generally operating smoothly, liquidity restored and new initiatives toward financial regulation aim at reducing the likelihood of recurrence. However, in other...

After months of speculation, the USS Lassen sailed within 12 nautical miles of an artificial Chinese island on 27 October 2015. In doing so, it completed the first in a series of planned freedom of navigation operations in the South...

Behind the impressive growth of the world’s two largest emerging nations, China and India, land has been a key infrastructural resource as well as a major source of social conflicts. Laws in both countries have allowed the governments to take...

With the vast majority of economists and primary dealers expecting the Federal Reserve to lift rates next month, the subject of discussion has shifted toward the pace of the hikes and the peak or terminal rate.  With the vast majority...

The dollar-bloc currencies and the Norwegian krone were the strongest major currencies last week but are leading the downside today.  The slump in commodity prices is taking a toll.  WTI is off by nearly 3%.  Copper is off about half...

Surveys show that around 90% of primary dealers and economists expect the Fed to raise interest rates in the middle of December. Over the past month, the two-year US note yield has risen by nearly 37 bp to 91 bp. ...

China’s ties to Africa are likely to get stronger this year, as the world’s biggest economy appears poised to once again, double its investments across the fast-growing continent. The run-up to the sixth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) early next...

Alongside this week’s APEC leaders’ summit in Manila, US President Obama met counterparts and trade ministers from 11 other Asia-Pacific states that agreed in October to the expanded Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). These states, covering around 40% of world GDP, cannot...

On 1 November 2015, the leaders of East Asia’s three main powers gathered together to hold the sixth Republic of Korea–China–Japan (KCJ) Trilateral Summit in Seoul, the Republic of Korea (ROK). On 1 November 2015, the leaders of East Asia’s...

The Federal Reserve holds a discount rate meeting on Monday.  There is some speculation that the 75 bp discount rate could rise.  At the September meeting, which is not the same at the FOMC meeting five of the 12 regional...

The Pacific region has seen enormous growth in urban populations as more and more people migrate from rural areas to capital cities. As a result, water, sanitation, and health care have become challenges in many parts of the region. According...

The US dollar is rebounding today after yesterday's correction.  Those losses seemed to have been a function of some profit taking after the seeming confirmation in the FOMC minutes that the Fed was set, barring a significant surprise, to raise...

The issue of liberalising Japan’s agricultural market presented a major, if not the major hurdle to the Abe administration’s agreement with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal struck in Atlanta on 5 October 2015. Japan has agreed to abolish tariffs on...

The US dollar is trading heavily today.  The losses are not particularly steep against either the majors or the emerging market currencies.  A common narrative is attributing the dollar's pullback to "dovish minutes," but this is not a fair assessment,...

Chinese financial diplomacy has reached its coming of age. This new era started when China first announced the introduction of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in 2013. The bank should be operational by late 2015. Combined with other Chinese-led...