Markets

Some dovish signals from the Fed and a bounce in oil prices helped EM end last week on a firm note.  This week, the US retail sales report could be important, and the same goes for CPI and PPI data...

Recent developments in the South China Sea are a serious cause for concern for Southeast Asian states, which have a huge interest in ensuring the safety and security of these waters given their importance for international shipping. Ongoing militarisation in...

The Philippines will hold their presidential election on 9 May 2016. The dramatic campaign was until recently seen as fight between four major candidates, each gathering a roughly equal share of the vote. The Philippines will hold their presidential election...

In the EM local currency bond space, the Philippines (10-year yield -9 bp), Mexico (-5 bp), and Ukraine (-4 bp) have outperformed this week, while Peru (10-year yield +21 bp), Brazil (+18 bp), and Russia (+11 bp) have underperformed.  To...

The surging yen has been the main feature in the foreign exchange market in recent days, but its advancing streak has been stopped with today's setback.  The greenback traded briefly dipped below JPY107.70 in North America yesterday but has not...

Watch any tourism or branding campaign for an Australian city, and chances are you’ll see plenty of appealing imagery of amenities in and around the CBD – be it restaurants, nightclubs, parks or galleries. It is a common mantra in...

As the China boom passes into history and Australians are left to rethink their relationship with that vast country, politicians will seek to craft a new ‘Asia’ in the Australian imagination in response to new circumstances. That has, after all,...

The ‘China Dream’, a signature slogan of President Xi Jinping, has drawn worldwide attention. At a time when the growing assertiveness of China is being linked to the revival of the idea of Sino-centrism, the resurgence of a once ‘humiliated’...

Governments should open up their transport project funding decisions to greater scrutiny, including tabling an independent cost-benefit analysis in Parliament, recommends a new report from think-tank the Grattan Institute. Governments should open up their transport project funding decisions to greater...

In late January 2016, the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) held its 12th National Congress to select leaders and set policy guidelines for the next five years. Although every VCP congress is a time of intense power struggles, the 12th Congress...

Western and Asian governments and commentators have pilloried the Chinese government for its inscrutability on the so-called ‘nine-dash line’ in the South China Sea. Because the nine-dash line allegedly lacks a basis in international law as reflected in the United...

Martin Good / Shutterstock.com Martin Good / Shutterstock.com The recent announcement of the imminent opening of a rival stock exchange to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) caused considerable media excitement. It is indeed a historic development in South Africa’s economic...

China’s pattern of regional conduct has come increasingly into focus in recent times. Its behaviour is much less about maintaining the ‘status quo’, and much more about revising the established dynamics and contours in the region to its preferences. This...

In December 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping flew into South Africa for the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation with great fanfare. There were many announcements about prospective investments across Africa. Agriculture featured prominently. However, what is the real story of China...

The current scandal embroiling Prime Minister Najib Razak has led the Malaysian government to crack down on press freedoms. However, a restricted mainstream Malaysian media has not stopped the publishing online of information on the ongoing corruption scandal surrounding the...