Asia Economics Weekly Pakistan’s central bank aiming to rekindle investment In a bid to revive investment, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) cut its policy rate for the second successive meeting on Friday. The SBP is likely to loosen monetary policy further, even at the risk... 8th October 2012 · 1 min read
Emerging Markets Economics Update How much scope do emerging markets have to loosen policy? Despite recent policy easing by the US Fed and the ECB, we expect global growth will continue to disappoint over the next couple of years. Against this gloomy background, prospects for emerging... 5th October 2012 · 1 min read
Emerging Markets Economics Update QE3: big risk or damp squib? There is growing concern among emerging market (EM) policymakers that a third dose of QE from the Fed will stoke hot money inflows to the developing world, and open up a new front in the so-called... 4th October 2012 · 1 min read
Emerging Markets Economics Update Emerging Market manufacturers still struggling The Bank of Uganda lowered its benchmark interest rate by 200bps to 13.00% today and, while theeasing cycle still has further to run, we think the pace of rate cuts may slow in the months ahead. 2nd October 2012 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Update Australia finished cutting rates The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) cut its policy rate by 25bp to 3.25% today. We think this will mark the end of its loosening cycle, with rates set to remain on hold until late 2013. 2nd October 2012 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Focus Is Indonesia overheating? Rapid economic growth, coupled with strong credit expansion and a worsening current account have led to fears among some commentators that Indonesia’s economy is overheating, and that the central bank... 1st October 2012 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Update Manufacturing recovery still some way off The September PMIs signal that manufacturing remains weak in Asia. We think that global growth will continue to struggle over the coming year or so and that, against this backdrop, manufacturing... 1st October 2012 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Update India's latest fiscal plan likely to be only partly adopted If implemented, the recommendations of the Kelkar Commission would put India’s public finances on a far more stable footing. However, the government is unlikely to be able to adopt them in full. 1st October 2012 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Weekly Property prices in Asia - an update Last year we identified Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore and Taiwan as places where property markets were showing signs of overheating. This Weekly examines how property prices in the region have fared... 1st October 2012 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Update India's external deficit remains a concern India‘s current account deficit fell in the second quarter of the year, but only slightly. The deficit remains high and India is still dependent on fragile portfolio investment. In these circumstances... 28th September 2012 · 1 min read
Emerging Markets Economic Outlook Shifting down the gears We expect emerging market (EM) growth to slow to around 4.5% in 2013, with only a modest pick-up to 5.0% in 2014. This would be some way below average growth of 6.1% seen since 2000. What’s more... 27th September 2012 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Update Weak Q3 growth in Vietnam, improvement unlikely soon Vietnam looks on course to report its weakest pace of full-year growth in over a decade after figures released today showed the economy is continuing to struggle. Problems in the banking sector, which... 27th September 2012 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Weekly Asian equities to continue to underperform A third round of quantitative easing in the US and policy actions in other major economies have boosted risk appetite and lifted equities in Asia. But the region’s equity markets are still on course... 21st September 2012 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Update New Zealand set for subdued growth Today’s GDP data show that New Zealand’s economy lost momentum in Q2, as was expected after a strong start to the year. We expect growth to settle at close to its trend rate over the coming quarters... 20th September 2012 · 1 min read
Asia Chart Pack Asia’s asset prices lifted by global policy stimulus Economic data in Asia have continued to be soft, mainly due to weakness in exports. Asset prices across the region have nonetheless been boosted by policy actions in the US and other major economies... 19th September 2012 · 1 min read
Commodities Focus Rice prices to fall further as Thai exports recover Thailand’s exports of rice in 2012/13 are likely to be some 20-40% higher than the latest estimates for 2011/12. This should enable Thailand to regain its position as the world’s top rice exporting... 19th September 2012 · 1 min read