Markets

What a difference a week makes.  Last week's US employment data had put the dollar bulls back into control.  Developments over the last 24-48 hours have seen the reins slip from their hands.   What a difference a week makes....

ASEAN needs a ready and capable steward in 2015 and Malaysia looks to be in the right place at the right time. Malaysia has made clear that realising the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by the end of the year will...

After his victory in the December 2014 elections, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pledged to turn Japan into ‘one of the greatest powers in the world’ by implementing the new foreign policy approach of ‘proactive pacifism’. Abe is seeking...

The debate on fiscal reform in Japan has been heating up. The working assumption so far has been that tax hikes will be sufficient to solve the fiscal problem. Fortunately the fiscal debate has now gone beyond this innocent simplicity...

The US dollar is firmer but is largely within the range seen yesterday.  The market awaits developments from the G20 meeting that concludes today and meeting of European finance ministers followed by the heads of state gathering.   The US...

As in other areas, the reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China has been a gradual process. Now, almost 25 years after SOE reforms began, the government must tackle new problems: breaking down special interests, distancing the state from the...

The rebound in oil prices and the sliver of hope of a peace treaty in Ukraine is serving to soften a few of the trends in EM assets in recent months.  We doubt that this is the start of a...

1.  The swing in the pendulum of expectations back toward a mid-year Fed rate hike is one of the key developments that will shape the investment climate.  The data in the week ahead, including the broader measures of the labor...

Investors are having a tough time of things today.  Three issues have eclipsed the firming of expectations for a mid-year Fed hike.First, Greece's Tsipras remained committed to his campaign promises in a speech to parliament that keeps it in loggerheads...

China, like much of the developed world, faces slower growth and an ageing population. Africa in contrast offers the potential of ‘catch up’ growth and a growing young pool of low-cost labour, alongside plentiful natural resources. The economic prospects of...

Over the last week, Russia (+12.2%), Hungary (+7.2%), and UAE (+6.3%) have outperformed in the EM equity space as measured by MSCI, while Turkey (-4.0%), Hong Kong (-0.8%), and the Philippines (-0.2%) have underperformed.  To put this in better context,...

The European Central Bank (ECB) symbolises the strange mix of politics and technocracy that marks EU governance. The bank was pushed to centre stage by the Eurozone debt crisis and the unwillingness or inability of Europe’s national governments to come...

President Barack Obama’s recent visit to India will kick-start stalled negotiations on a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) between the US and India that has been under sporadic discussion since 2008, aimed at facilitating greater cross-border investment flows. President Barack Obama’s...

Vietnam has recently upped its diplomatic efforts to strengthen relations with major powers by signing comprehensive and strategic partnership agreements. The underlying diplomatic philosophy is to create interdependent relations with as many major powers as possible, while avoiding taking sides....

Few countries have done so well out of China’s belated economic awakening as Australia, which has sated much of the People’s Republic’s voracious appetite for overseas iron ore and metallurgical coal. Supply struggled to keep pace with demand and the...