Markets

Domestic uncertainties in Thailand and Cambodia have hindered progress along the heavily militarised border and the Preah Vihear temple dispute. Domestic uncertainties in Thailand and Cambodia have hindered progress along the heavily militarised border and the Preah Vihear temple dispute.Between...

Japan’s recession is not paving way for sustained growth. It is prolonging new debt and liquidity and thus deteriorating fiscal discipline.In the last quarter, Japan’s economy fell into recession. In the West, it was characterized as “unexpected.” The realities are precisely...

1) Peace talks in Colombia are becoming more tenuous  2) Brazil still doesn’t have an economic team, but there is a frontrunner  3) Center-right candidate Klaus Iohannis won the Presidential election in an upset result  4) Indonesia’s government finally raised...

The decision by Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, to call a snap election barely two years into a four-year term demonstrates a degree of political flexibility other world leaders can only envy. Abe did not need to go to the...

Forget shirt-fronting Russian President Vladimir Putin. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s most challenging task in the summit season was breaking an uncomfortable silence with Chinese president Xi Jinping. And he had to do it twice: first at the APEC meeting...

Taken at face value, David Cameron’s warning this week about risks in the global economy sounds like it might be wonderfully prescient. Here’s the country’s economic chauffeur, carefully checking his instrument gauges, and sure enough, sees the same signs today...

A direct link has been established between Hong Kong and Shanghai’s stock exchanges. The so-called Stock Connect means investors in Hong Kong can now buy shares listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange via their local brokers and vice versa. This...

On 17 December 2013, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe issued Japan’s first National Security Strategy (NSS). The document declares that Japan will make a more ‘proactive contribution to peace’ based on the principle of international cooperation. It also outlines three basic...

The past week has seen big breakthroughs in Asia Pacific economic diplomacy. At the APEC summit, Xi Jinping and Shinzo Abe broke the diplomatic ice in the China–Japan relationship. The United States and China paved the way towards extending the...

The overall theme today appears to be one of consolidation, encouraged by European data, which included a slightly higher than expected UK CPI and a considerably better German ZEW survey.  Japan's Prime Minister Abe has not disappointed the market, delaying...

Overall, the economies of Asia are a bull element in global recovery and long-term development. The advanced countries, although less so now the United States, remain a drag on the world economy with no sign that Europe is likely to...

The APEC summit has only just ended, but like the return of hazy skies over Beijing, clouds of uncertainty surrounding the regional forum have again drifted overhead. This is familiar weather for APEC, a grouping that has faced questions about...

There were few notable developments out of the G20 meeting that would directly impact EM markets.  However, the escalating tensions with Russia made evident in the meeting have increased to the point that it could again lead to spillover effects....

The US dollar is mostly higher to start the week, with two exceptions. The first is the yen. The unexpected contraction in Q3 GDP triggered a stock market slide (Nikkei off 3%, giving back around 40% of this year’s gains)...

The investment climate rests on three legs:  the divergence that is characterized by the de-synchronized business cycle, the decline in commodity prices and a slowing of China.   Data that underscores these factors appear to have stopped having much significance...