Markets

Malaysia’s manufacturing sector is reversing to a state reminiscent of its post-colonial stage of development. Regrettably, this situation was avoidable. When the Federation of Malaya gained independence from Britain in 1957, economic conditions were ripe for rapid and sustained growth....

Japan is almost fully dependent on energy imports. In March 2011, a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit eastern Japan and damaged the nuclear power plant in Fukushima. This disaster led to the shutdown of all nuclear power plants due to...

The decision of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to slash the repo rate (the rate at which the RBI lends to commercial banks) by 50 basis points (bps) has surprised many. The RBI governor, Raghuram Rajan, had previously taken...

According to United Nations World Population Prospects 2015, Singapore will become a super-aged society by 2026. By then, one in five people in the country (or 1.25 million) will be aged 65 or above. The median age will exceed 44.9,...

EM is starting the week on a positive footing.  Aside from the recovery in global risk appetite, the uptick in commodity prices and the broader weaker tone in the dollar, we think the price action in Brazil has helped EM...

According to the central Chinese government, solving rural poverty and environmental degradation problems will require resettling more than 10 million citizens by 2050. This number does not include the 7 million people that have already been resettled over the last...

The recent Washington summit took the US-China bilateral relations onto a new level, while President Xi’s UN visit gave a glimpse of China’s new global role. The current characterization of the U.S.-China bilateral relations are very different trajectories of power....

1) Colombia’s central bank unexpectedly hiked its policy rate 25 bp to 4.75%, 2) Mexico extended its FX auctions, 3) Petrobras raised prices for gasoline and diesel for the first time in almost a year, 4) China’s central bank cut...

At the end of every quarter, the IMF reports official reserve holdings.  It is the most comprehensive and authoritative source of such information.  This is especially true of the currency composition of the reserves, which some countries publish freely and...

There are 195 sovereign states, according to the United Nations, and two, “observer states” (Vatican and Palestine).  The high income countries in North America, Western Europe and Asia-Pacific account for about 15% of the sovereign states.  Most of the rest...

The cliché “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here” from Dante’s Inferno appears more appropriate to the current housing situation in India than anywhere else. India is facing a daunting housing shortage of 49 million units (Tiwari and Parikh 2012)....

The end of a horrendous quarter of equities and emerging markets is generating a sigh of relief that is helping lift those battered markets.  The MSCI Emerging Market is up almost 1.75% prior to the open of the Latam markets. ...

Two developments make a shutdown of the US government on October 1 less likely.  First, the outgoing Speaker of the House made it clear he is determined to avoid the government shutdown, and with his resignation (as of the end...

At the end of April 2015, FXI — China’s prestigious Xinhua China 25 index, a key indicator of China’s stock market value — climbed dramatically, reaching over US$52 per share. By 5 September, the index had dropped to a low...

The UN declared 2015 the year for global action on development. The post-2015 agenda aims to fill the gaps in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and is far more ambitious than ever before. The year could prove crucial for integrating...