Markets

Tough economic issues are getting harder to ignore for Sri Lanka’s new political leaders. Sri Lanka witnessed a change of government in early 2015 with the surprise defeat of the political strongman and war-winning president Mahinda Rajapaksa. Tough economic issues...

Meet the New Year - same as the old year.  EM starts 2016 on a weak footing, with negative sentiment carrying over from 2015.  The global backdrop remains poor, with the Fed likely to continue its tightening cycle with another...

The start of a new calendar year does not necessarily mean the rise of new market drivers.  In fact, the key issues investors face at the start of 2016 are the same that dominated Q4 2015.  These issues center around...

On the back of expanding global trade and buoyant exports, the Indian economy managed to grow at more than 9 percent annually between 2005–6 and 2007–8. However, following the global financial crisis, and subsequent sluggish world output and trade trends,...

South Korea has been celebrated for the twin successes of its rapid economic development and democratisation. However, the political and economic progress that has taken place has increasingly come under challenge in recent years. The worsening gap between the rich...

President Benigno Aquino III completes his six-year term much less popular than when he began it. His approval rating has dropped from a high of 79 percent at the beginning of his term to 54 percent as of September 2015....

Put in a comparative, historical perspective, Indonesia’s economic growth performance has been relatively strong. Yet the recent slowdown in growth is a cause for concern. It is estimated that the Indonesian economy will only grow 4.7 percent in 2015 and...

Recent headlines on the South Korean economy announced that the country’s GDP grew faster during July–September 2015 than it had over the past five years. However, there is a more important story beyond the fluctuations in regularly reported macroeconomic data...

The direction of Sri Lanka’s post-civil war socio-political and economic development took a pivotal turn in 2015 with the election of a new president in January and, seven months later, a new government to parliament. The direction of Sri Lanka’s...

China grew at 7% year-on-year in the first and the second quarter and 6.9% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2015.  This is its weakest quarterly economic performance since first quarter of 2009 according to official data, growth is likely...

In October 2015, the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival cancelled the launch of three books containing testimonies collected from survivors of Indonesia’s worst political genocide of the 20th century. Why is discussing history so controversial in Indonesia? In October 2015,...

The Janus-faced nature of Xi Jinping’s China was again on show in 2015. In September, a dour-looking Xi reviewed soldiers and ballistic missiles at a military parade in Beijing to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Victory Day, which marks China’s...

This year has been a year of resilience for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Consider what he has faced: a contentious debate over national security reforms, widespread opposition to nuclear reactor restarts, a pension record hack that played on public...

House prices rose by an average of 64% in Sydney and Melbourne in the decade from 2004 to 2014. At the same time foreign investment proposals in developed real estate rose by almost tenfold. This correlation led to many anecdotal...

Every five years, Vietnamese dare to hope that this time, the ruling Communist Party will take a chance on change. Four successive party congresses have just kicked the ball down the road. They have redistributed positions mainly with a view...