Markets

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreed to on 5 October 2015 covers almost a third of world trade and 40 percent of global GDP. By not being part of the TPP, India risks losing out. According to a Center on Global...

China is scrapping its one-child policy and officially allowing all couples to have two children. While some may think this heralds an overnight switch, the reality is that it is far less dramatic. This is, in fact, merely the latest...

There has been a saying in India of late: ‘India never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity’. This is in stark contrast to the Chinese aphorism that President Xi Jinping referred to while addressing the British parliament in October:...

As China’s growth is decelerating, Chinese purchasing power is accelerating. The next five-year plan will boost the change. Only a few years ago, China still enjoyed double-digit growth. According to third-quarter data, the Chinese economy grew 6.9 percent year-on-year. As...

After much internal wrangling, China’s State Council and Communist Party Central Committee have released new guidelines for reforming state-owned enterprises (SOEs). China’s economic reform is setup to balance less formal state interference with more informal Party influence. To the delight...

The Irish poet WB Yeats was not thinking about Southeast Asia when he wrote ‘things fall apart; the centre cannot hold’, but his words may accurately describe the situation in Malaysia. The monarchy governing the state of Johor is rattling...

It was a close call.  After Australia's leading banks lifted the variable rate mortgage rates recently, many observers expected the Reserve Bank of Australia to offset the tightening with a rate cut in early November.  Others emphasized that the variable...

By the time I met Grace, she had been in Australia on a bridging visa for about 18 months. Part way into the interview, she reached for a stack of papers in her bag. “Let me show you something… this...

The House of Lords has voted to delay the government’s plans to cut tax credits. The cuts form a significant component (more than a third) of the Conservative government’s plans to reduce the UK’s welfare bill by £12 billion. However,...

There is still no date for the UK’s EU referendum and the deadline of 2017 may seem a long way off, but the “In” campaign is starting late and on the back foot for several reasons. Most Britons are naturally...

Africa’s prosperity increasingly depends on China. Given recent signs of a slowdown in the world’s largest economy, Africa’s short- and long-term outlooks seem precarious.  The latest sign arrived on October 23 when China cut two benchmark interest rates to spur...

On 14 August, the day before the 70th anniversary of the end of the Pacific War, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe issued a long-awaited statement on Japanese memory of the war and his vision for the future. In it, he...

Every nation deserves a visionary leader, from whom its citizens can expect real results. India has had its share of visionary leaders. Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, to name two, held views on the economy that were not only diametrically...

EM starts the week off on a mixed footing.  On the one hand, hints of ECB stimulus and actual PBOC stimulus last week suggest a more supportive global liquidity backdrop for EM and risk.  On the other hand, they are...

India has pulled ahead of China and United States as the most favoured destination for foreign direct investment (FDI). According to the Financial Times (FT), India received US$31 billion in FDI in 2015, which is US$3 and US$4 billion more...