Middle East & North Africa Data Response Egypt Consumer Prices (Mar.) Egypt’s headline inflation dropped slightly in March as a fall in food inflation helped to offset a record rise in housing and utilities inflation. The latter contributed to a jump in core inflation... 10th April 2012 · 1 min read
Global Economics Focus What are Argentina's lessons for the euro-zone? Argentina’s experience after the collapse of the peso ten years ago supports the view that Greece, and perhaps other peripheral economies, would ultimately be better off leaving the euro-zone rather... 10th April 2012 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Update More easing coming, but will it work? The focus has quickly shifted to the second April meeting of the Bank of Japan’s Policy Board after the widely anticipated decision not to announce any further easing measures today. The publication... 10th April 2012 · 1 min read
China Data Response Foreign Trade & CPI (Mar.) March’s trade figures from China paint a picture of slow but steady growth in global demand alongside further weakening at home. 10th April 2012 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Update Asia’s costly fuel subsidies to remain in place The recent increase in oil prices is putting the budgets of countries that operate fuel subsidy regimes under strain. Nevertheless, any meaningful reform of subsidy programmes across Asia looks... 9th April 2012 · 1 min read
Latin America Economics Update Chilean economy not yet out of the woods As the most open and commodity-dependent of the major Latin American economies, Chile benefited from an improvement in global conditions in Q1. The road ahead will not be a smooth one however and, if... 5th April 2012 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Economics Update Evaluating Hungary’s Early FX Repayment Scheme The introduction of Hungary’s early FX mortgage repayment scheme last September was one in a chain of events that severely dented market confidence in local policymaking and sent the economy to the... 5th April 2012 · 1 min read
UK Economics Update More QE in May still in the balance Today’s decision by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to stay the course and complete the previously authorised asset purchases was always likely, given the pattern of past QE decisions. While the... 5th April 2012 · 1 min read
Bank of Japan Watch Further easing coming, just not yet The Bank of Japan’s Policy Board two-day meeting, which concludes on Tuesday (10th), has been made more interesting by two recent developments: the disappointingly weak Tankan survey and another spike... 4th April 2012 · 1 min read
China Economics Update Inflation Monitor (Mar.) Consumer price inflation may have edged up in March, but this would still largely reflect volatility around Chinese New Year. The recent increase in gasoline prices should have little impact on the... 4th April 2012 · 1 min read
Canada Chart Pack Inflation still poised to decline Although gasoline prices have risen over the last few months, the year-on-year rate of gasoline inflation is still set to fall over the next few months. Given that other energy and non-energy... 3rd April 2012 · 1 min read
Latin America Economics Update Price controls are not the answer to Venezuelan inflation On the face of it, news that Venezuelan inflation is falling seems to support President Chavez’s claims that price controls will tame inflation. In reality, though, they are not the long-term solution... 3rd April 2012 · 1 min read
Europe Chart Pack LTRO euphoria starting to fade Recent news on the euro-zone economy has dampened hopes that that the ECB’s longer-term refinancing operations (LTROs) in December and February had largely solved the euro-zone’s economic and fiscal... 3rd April 2012 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Weekly Indonesia - losing its shine? Indonesia’s stock market and currency have been among the worst performing assets in Asia so far this year. The poor performance reflects worries over proposed cuts to fuel subsidies, which will... 2nd April 2012 · 1 min read
Europe Data Response Euro-zone Flash CPI & German Retail Sales (Mar./Feb.) March’s euro-zone CPI inflation data confirmed that stubbornly high inflation is adding to the squeeze on households’ purchasing power from rising unemployment and fiscal tightening. 30th March 2012 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Update Retail sales jump flattered by temporary factors The surprisingly strong rise in Japanese retail sales in February largely reflects a number of temporary factors, including an extra shopping day due to the leap year and earthquake-related insurance... 29th March 2012 · 1 min read
