Markets

1) Some EM policymakers are becoming more worried about weak currencies 2) The PBOC failed to drain liquidity for the past three sessions, fueling speculation of a cut in reserve requirements 3) The Reserve Bank of India keep rates unchanged, but indicated...

In December 2013, despite an ongoing official review of its existing agreements, the Indian government signed a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) with the United Arab Emirates. Information on the deal was recently made public by the Ministry of Finance after...

The ECB has not announced any new initiative.  It stands ready to do more next year, but there was no specific mention of sovereign bond purchases.  There was no tweaking of the second TLTRO which will launched next week.  ...

Europe's economic crisis is slowly but steadily eroding the political systems of many countries on the Continent. New actors are emerging and threatening the supremacy of the traditional players. Alliances and events that seemed impossible only a few years ago...

The forthcoming ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) could help drive economic reform in the Philippines. But policymakers will have to embrace what could be difficult reforms and realise that ignoring them would raise the threat of being bypassed (again) by investment...

The meeting between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Xi Jinping at the 2014 APEC summit was a temporary relief for both amid rising bilateral tensions over the last two years. This talk was the result of both governments’ efforts...

The relationship between the state and economic enterprise is a central choice that governments have to make in all economies. The role of the state and state-backed or state-owned enterprise in Asia’s economic modernisation is a question of special interest....

With the broader dollar appreciation trend losing steam in last several weeks, the fall in oil prices has become the main external variable determining EM performance.  Russia, of course, is the weakest link amongst the major EM countries, but Malaysia...

The US dollar is mostly softer as North American participants prepare to return from what, for many, was a long weekend. The greenback had initially moved higher, hitting JPY119.15 while the euro slipped to $1.2420. The proximate cause was the continued...

Virtually every dimension of China’s economic success over the past three-and-a-half decades can be attributed largely to the rise of markets and private businesses. Private firms account for almost all the growth in employment, most of the expansion of output...

Abe’s persistent stance on the Yasukuni Shrine, the Dokdo/Takeshima territorial dispute and the ‘comfort women’ issue has elicited fierce opposition from the South Korean government. While no rapprochement on any of these conflicts has been achieved, the Japanese government should...

The recent state visit by Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to Cambodia represented part of the Thai military government’s uphill diplomatic battle to build and strengthen its legitimacy abroad. This visit occurred amid mounting diplomatic pressures from Europe and the...

1) Oil prices have taken another sharp leg down 2) The People’s Bank of China surprised the markets with rate cuts last Friday 3) Malaysia cut fuel subsidies just days after Indonesia’s new President Joko Widodo took similar measures 4) Nigeria devalued the...

OPEC's decision to roll-over existing quotas sent oil prices sharply lower, pushed European bonds and stocks higher, and generally gave the U.S. dollar a boost.  Today's theme is more consolidative in nature.  At the same time, the dollar's firmer tone...

China is facing a new economic crisis, and it is not about mounting local debt or even a rapidly slowing property market. The crisis in the making is about family business succession in the world’s second-largest economy. This issue may...