Markets

The visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to India this week, so early in the term of India’s new Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, underlines the growing strategic weight of the relationship between the two countries. Modi’s prime ministership, with its...

The creation of the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) to finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects in emerging economies is a landmark achievement. Developing nations have lost faith in the current system with its strict conditions on development finance and...

Since the onset of the North Atlantic financial crisis (NAFC) in 2008, central banks in the US and the other major advanced economies have pursued highly accommodative monetary policy, including through unconventional policy actions. Policy rates have been near zero...

The Yes vote has taken a narrow lead, but the vote is too close to call ahead of September 18’s vote on Scottish independence. Increasingly, however, many Scots are saying ‘what have we got to lose by separating from a...

The World Bank and Asian Development Bank have recently advocated the importance of Indonesia’s manufacturing sector. Manufacturing is considered a key sector for the advancement of the country’s overall economy and as an important source of formal employment. The reality...

The global recovery is strengthening but remains weak. A global growth target, pursued by the G20, could significantly strengthen this recovery process. But such a macroeconomic target needs to be supported by microeconomic reforms. The global recovery is strengthening but...

The Japanese economy continues to defy gravity despite a Mount Fuji of debt that has no parallel in Western countries, and the worst problem of demographics among all the world’s rich nations. Japan’s net debt-to-GDP ratio is about 135%, even...

The ASEAN Economic Community, planned to come into effect in 2015, is expected to liberalise goods, capital and skilled labour flows in the ASEAN region. While there has been considerable progress in the area of trade integration, financial integration still...

The US dollar is consolidating, largely within yesterday's ranges.  Month-end and quarter-end hedge and portfolio adjustments are notoriously difficult to predict.  There is also large option expires today.  Given the EU Summit this weekend, a holiday in the US on...

In July, Shanghai’s Dragon TV exposed illegal food handling practices by Shanghai Husi Food Co., a major meat supplier to multinational corporations such as McDonald’s and KFC. The story, which was the result of months of undercover investigative journalism and...

India needs economic growth for sustainable development, which in turn requires access to clean, convenient and reliable energy. An estimated 400 million people still lack access to electricity, and blackouts are still common across the country. A combination of rapidly...

Amid light new, the US dollar is slightly firmer against most of the major currencies, except sterling.  Carney's comments over the weekend, suggesting that the BOE will not necessarily wait for wages to rise before hiking rates, helped lift sterling...

 The capital markets are subdued. European markets have been thinned by the Assumption Day holiday.  The US dollar is a bit softer against most of the major currencies, except the Japanese yen.  Equity and bond markets are mostly firmer as...

The euro zone economy stagnated in Q2, as the rest of the region offset the unexpected 0.2% contraction in the German economy.  The implied yield of the German bund future dipped below 1.0%, though the yield in the cash market...

Today will likely prove to be the most eventful of the week.   It has already featured Q2 Japanese GDP, a slew of Chinese data, euro zone industrial output and UK employment and the BOE's quarterly inflation report.  Still to...