Markets

After wild swings at midweek (October 15), the US dollar spent the last two sessions of the week consolidating.   While we expect the Federal Reserve will not be distracted by the recent market turmoil, or the softening of some...

Under the leadership of Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) in March-April 2013 did a 180-degree turnaround: it declared that it had the monetary policy wherewithal to end Japan’s chronic, mild deflation and secure a rate of inflation...

1) OPEC members have started a price war even as their oil output climbed to the highest level in over a year2) Recent inflation data out of India came as a much welcomed relief, and a fuel subsidy reduction is...

The market is a fickle mistress.  At the end of September, and at the start of this month, we pushed against the hawkish read of the Fed’s dot-plots.  We resisted talk of a Fed hike in Q1 15.  We explained...

The Vietnamese economy has experienced a downturn in growth since 2008. In the past five years, the growth averaged about 5.5 per cent a year and is not expected to be much higher in the coming years. For a country...

The World Bank says the disease’s economic cost could be US$32 billion over two years, with the mining sectors badly hit. But many of the most damaging effects are on a microcosmic scale as citizens in Liberia, Sierra Leone and...

Launched as a political bloc and security pact in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, ASEAN has evolved to embrace an ambitious economic agenda. Its latest project is to establish the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 31 December 2015. But...

Many commentators assumed following Indonesia’s 9 July presidential election that members of defeated candidate Prabowo Subianto’s six-party ‘Red and White’ coalition would not want to be locked out of government and would seek to realign themselves with president-elect Joko Widodo...

The US dollar is trading broadly higher as the divergence thesis gains ground with the latest batch of disappointing euro area data. Soft UK BRC sales and price indices suggest that Britain is being pulled closer to the euro area...

A better mood in equity markets and a softer dollar at the start of the week gives us some hope for a bounce in EM assets, even if short lived. While the focus remains on major markets for now, several...

After two decades of stagnant growth and the Fukushima triple disaster, Japan appears more confident both domestically and internationally. The economy has been inflated, much-needed social change is being discussed with some progress being made, and international diplomacy is once...

One of the striking things about the past few decades of Japan’s economic history has been the fact that textbook macroeconomics could have predicted most of it. Back in the late 1990s, this was a controversial point of view. Many...

In May 2014, the Japanese government announced its plan to attract ‘foreign talent’ as part of a campaign to further economic growth. The plan consists of three key points.First is a review of the Technical Intern Training System. This will...

When India began negotiations with ASEAN in 2004 for a free trade agreement (FTA) covering the goods sector, it marked a major step in the evolution of the country’s engagement with the global economy. When India began negotiations with ASEAN...

The dollar retains a firm undertone after yesterday's recovery in the North American session from the week's lows.  For the first time in months, the dollar has lost ground against all the major currencies this week.   The Japanese yen is...