Markets

New ADBI research (Aizawa and Helble, forthcoming) studies how overweight and obesity have become major threats to public health in Indonesia. The evidence shows that obesity, which was previously a problem among high-income groups in the country, has spread across...

Northeast China is under heavy pressure to reduce overcapacity. As the economy is rebalancing, so must “China’s Rustbelt.” But how? In the next five years, China's steel sector should reduce capacity by 100-150 million metric tons, while the coal mining...

While some observers claim China is heading for another property bubble, the big picture is more complex. There are signs of bubble formation in some cities and excessive inventory in others, but there is solid growth in many. A few...

The unthinkable is happening in Malaysian politics. Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad and his jailed former deputy Anwar Ibrahim have joined hands in a seemingly impossible alliance to unseat Prime Minister Najib Razak. Never before in Malaysian history have such...

It has been more than 20 years since former Australia Prime Minister Paul Keating declared that ‘no country is more important to Australia than Indonesia. If we fail to get this relationship right, and nurture and develop it, the whole...

An ill-conceived strategy undermined by mismanagement and bad fortune is increasing the risks that the UK votes to leave the EU in June.  Nearly everything that could go wrong has gone wrong for UK Prime Minister Cameron.    An ill-conceived strategy...

EM ended the week on a mixed note after posting strong post-FOMC gains. The bounce in risk seems likely to continue this week, with little on the horizon to derail it. Specific country risk remains in play, however, with heightened...

In the EM equity space, China (+5.1%), South Africa (+3.8%), and Turkey (+3.6%) have outperformed this week, while Thailand (-0.7%), Qatar (-0.7%), and Colombia (-0.3%) have underperformed.  To put this in better context, MSCI EM rose 3.3% this week while...

Not long ago, the Malaysian government thought that mastery of the internet was a path towards economic development. In February 1996, it launched the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), essentially a special economic zone, to entice high-technology corporations like Microsoft to...

Since West Papua’s integration into Indonesia in 1969 through a United Nations-sponsored people’s referendum — a process considered deeply flawed — the Papuans’ problems have haunted all Indonesian presidents. A critical juncture came after the downfall of the authoritarian regime...

Today, Europe is struggling with a series of old and new challenges. Hard choices can no longer be deferred.  For half a decade, Europe has struggled with excessive debt (which remains excessively high), fiscal adjustment (which has failed to revive...

The dispute over China's “market economy status” (MES) divides Europe by countries and industries.  It stems from China’s 2001 agreement to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which Beijing believes required countries to grant MES to China within 15 years...

As climatic and environmental changes increase the accessibility of the Arctic, opening up the possibility of shorter shipping lanes and the ability to tap into large natural resource deposits, states within the region and beyond are beginning to look north....

Global growth has been tepid since the global financial crisis broke out almost 10 years ago, having declined from an average of 4.5 percent during the five years preceding the crisis to 3.5 percent over the past five years. Both...

The EU leaders’ summit on refugees begins tomorrow.   A conclusive agreement will likely be elusive.   There are three main obstacles.  First, the effort to reinforce the external borders to allow free internal movement requires Turkey's cooperation, but it will not...