Asia Economics Update More policy tightening to come in the Philippines The Philippines’ central bank (BSP) unexpectedly left its overnight rate at 4.5% today, but it did tighten policy settings by hiking its reserve-requirement ratio. Growth in 2011-12 looks set to be... 17th June 2011 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Update Reserve Bank of India hikes again, but not for last time The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) decision to raise its repo rate by 25bp to 7.5% from today was widely expected following the further rise in inflation in May. We now expect inflation to peak at... 17th June 2011 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Update Sri Lanka's central bank likely to tighten later this year The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) kept its policy rates on hold today, as expected. Core inflation is low, but current policy settings are very accommodative while the economy is set for another... 15th June 2011 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Weekly End of Korea's tightening cycle in sight The Bank of Korea's decision to raise its policy rate by 25bp to 3.25% on Friday surprised the consensus which had expected no change but was in line with our view. We expect another hike in Q3 and... 14th June 2011 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Update Bank Indonesia to tighten again this year Bank Indonesia (BI) kept its reference rate at 6.75% today, as was widely anticipated. The central bank is still relying on rupiah appreciation to ease the blow from higher commodity prices... 9th June 2011 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Update Australia's cash rate still likely to be hiked this year The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) held its cash rate at 4.75% today, as expected. The global economy looks to be slowing, but above-trend growth is nonetheless still likely in Australia and there is... 7th June 2011 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Update Pakistan's fiscal target may prove difficult to achieve Pakistan’s federal budget was announced late last week with the aim to narrow the chronic fiscal deficit. The government is rightly looking to broaden the tax base and scale back subsidies, but... 6th June 2011 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Weekly Bank Indonesia to bide its time, but not for long We have changed our forecast that Bank Indonesia (BI) will raise its policy rate on Thursday and now believe that the reference rate will be held at 6.75%. This is because headline inflation continues... 6th June 2011 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Update Emerging Asia PMIs fall but still point to industrial growth Purchasing Managers’ Indices (PMIs) released today for India, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Australia all worsened. However, the declines were generally small. These data suggest that manufacturing... 1st June 2011 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Update Australia's economic weakness will not last long Today’s Q1 GDP data show that Australia’s economy contracted in early 2011 at its fastest pace since the 1991 recession. However, the weakness was down to local floods and Cyclone Yasi. Growth will... 1st June 2011 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Update Thailand's central bank to continue raising repo rate The Bank of Thailand (BoT) hiked its policy rate by 25bp to 3.0% today, as expected. The economy grew at an above-trend pace at the start of the year, while price pressures should continue to mount in... 1st June 2011 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Update India's growth is set to ease further, but only temporarily GDP numbers released today show that growth in India eased slightly in Q1 2011. We expect it to fall further in the first six months of this financial year, which runs from April 2011 to March 2012... 31st May 2011 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Update Growth in the Philippines likely to remain above-trend Q1 GDP for the Philippines, published today, showed that the economy continued to expand despite a significant fall in government spending. The big picture is that domestic demand remains robust... 30th May 2011 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Weekly Australia set for above-trend growth Australia’s Q1 GDP data will be released on Wednesday and are likely to show that the economy contracted in early 2011. However, the weakness was mainly down to local floods and Cyclone Yasi. Growth... 30th May 2011 · 1 min read
Asia Chart Pack Growth remains strong in Emerging Asia Q1 GDP data out so far across Asia confirm that most economies have been growing at or above their trend pace. Strong growth has left little spare capacity in many economies and core inflation... 27th May 2011 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Weekly Inflation still uncomfortably high in Asia April price data show that inflation is highest (and is still rising) in Vietnam while it is lowest in Taiwan. Looking ahead, global commodity prices are likely to put downward pressure on headline... 23rd May 2011 · 1 min read
