Markets

As the second year of Abenomics progresses, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s program of coordinated monetary and fiscal stimulus and structural reform has lost some of its lustre. Not only have Abe’s approval ratings fallen below 50 per cent for the...

The week ahead is eventful.  Investors will learn of the results of review and stress test of European banks.  The Federal Reserve meets, as do three other central banks (Bank of Japan, Sweden's Riksbank and the Reserve Bank of New...

The US dollar gained on most of the major foreign currencies last week, but the overall tone, leaving aside the yen, was largely consolidative in nature.  The greenback was soft in the first half of the week but recovered in...

In May 2014, the Thai army, known as the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) staged a coup d’état to prevent civil war breaking out after months of political deadlock and administrative paralysis. Since then, the interim constitution has...

The dollar is little changed on the day against the majors. The euro is trading at $1.2650 and the pound at $1.6050. The dollar is just above ¥108.0 against the yen. There was also little notable price action in the EM...

1) India’s equity index continues to outperform following Prime Minister Modi’s decision to end fuel subsidies on diesel 2) On Friday, Moody's cut Russia by a notch to Baa2 and kept the outlook at negative 3) Russian state oil company Rosneft is...

As Japan seeks to diversify its investments beyond China, an opportunity arises for Vietnam to attract greater international investment. As Japan seeks to diversify its investments beyond China, an opportunity arises for Vietnam to attract greater international investment.Over the past...

Last week's drama was not the beginning of something as the pessimists and cynics would have it.  Our inclination that it was the end of something--that the pendulum had swung unreasonably far unreasonably quickly--is panning out    Last week's drama...

‘Womenomics’ is a key pillar of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic growth strategy. In 2013, just 64 per cent of Japanese women aged 15–64 were participating in the labour force — a low rate by OECD standards. As Japan’s labour...

Despite having won the president and vice-president posts respectively, Joko Widodo and Jusuf Kalla will possess little control, if at all, on the formulation of the next Indonesian budget for fiscal year 2015–16. One particular issue that concerns the new...

Emerging market assets have started off the week mixed, with few clear signals to follow. The major currencies also appear directionless at the moment; though eurozone flash PMIs on Thursday could help put the spotlight back on weakness there.As long...

Many have hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s maiden speech to the United Nations General Assembly as a historic shift away from the speeches of past Indian heads of government. But in reality, Modi’s speech is more a continuation of the...

For Vietnamese youth, a university degree is the entry ticket to the middle class and a promise (often unfulfilled) of an urban professional job. Enrolment in higher education has grown from 162,000 in 1992 to over two million last year,...

On 1 July 2014, the Abe government made a cabinet decision to reinterpret the Article 9 peace clause of Japan’s constitution to recognise the exercise of collective self-defence under limited circumstances. While the scope of the proposed changes are an...

When Xi Jinping ascended to the Chinese presidency, he, Premier Li Keqiang and their streamlined seven-person Politburo Standing Committee faced serious economic challenges at home as well as increasingly complex issues to manage abroad.Domestically, the Bo Xilai affair hovered over...