Asia Economics Weekly Philippines: inflation surprise to prompt 50bps hike In most of the region inflationary pressures are continuing to ease and central banks are preparing to bring tightening cycles to an end. A key exception is the Philippines, where a jump in headline... 10th February 2023 · 10 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Bank of Korea turns dovish as downturn worsens Despite the jump in inflation last month, the worsening activity data means the Bank of Korea is likely to leave interest rates unchanged at its February meeting. 3rd February 2023 · 7 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Pakistan closing in on IMF deal By raising interest rates and allowing the currency to fall against the US dollar, Pakistan this week took more steps towards securing new funding from the IMF and avoiding a default. The remaining... 27th January 2023 · 6 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Rebounding won, Vietnam politics, dovish surprises The rebound in the won is unlikely to be welcomed by the country’s struggling exporters, but will come as a relief to the Bank of Korea, which had become worried that higher import prices would keep... 20th January 2023 · 12 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly China rebound, Thai election, new currency forecasts Disruption from China’s reopening is fading faster than we had expected and we have revised up our GDP growth forecast for this year. As daily life in China returns to normal, spending at hotels... 13th January 2023 · 8 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Tourism boost as China reopens, Vietnam struggling Tourism across Asia has rebounded strongly in recent months, with arrivals in most places now at around 45% of pre-crisis levels. The region will receive a further boost on 8th January, when China... 6th January 2023 · 7 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Exporters take a beating, worse still to come Recent trade data from Emerging Asia have been downbeat and, with the global economy heading for recession, worse is still to come. 23rd December 2022 · 12 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly What the end of zero-COVID in China means for Asia Chinese authorities appear to have given up on efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 much earlier than we had previously anticipated. There may be some disruption to China’s industrial sector in... 16th December 2022 · 6 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Good news on inflation (except in the Philippines) The past week has brought mostly good news on the inflation front. Of the nine countries in the region to have reported November inflation figures, the y/y rate dropped or was stable in eight of them... 9th December 2022 · 6 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly BoK sounds dovish as inflation eases and growth slows A string of weak activity data, a sharp drop in inflation and dovish comments from the central bank support our view that the Bank of Korea’s tightening cycle is coming to an end soon. 2nd December 2022 · 6 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Korean truckers on strike, Taiwan local elections The costs of a strike by Korean truck drivers – the second this year – are starting to mount, with steel and cement producers reporting disruption. A prolonged period of industrial action would be... 25th November 2022 · 7 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Currency volatility, Sri Lanka budget, Malaysia GE15 The rebound in Asian currencies triggered by the weaker-than-expected US CPI data for October already appears to be running out of steam, and we expect more weakness over the coming months as a... 18th November 2022 · 9 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Tougher times ahead for Taiwan, COP27 Surging demand for electronics products helped Taiwan’s economy sail through the pandemic. But with this tailwind now turning into a headwind, growth looks set to slow sharply. 11th November 2022 · 6 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Problems for Korean corporates piling up Yields on commercial paper in Korea have continued to rise over the past week despite aggressive intervention by the authorities as they struggle to calm the markets. But even if the situation... 4th November 2022 · 8 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Three key calls, Vietnam playing catch up We published our latest Emerging Asia Economic Outlook earlier this week, containing new forecasts for GDP, inflation and monetary policy. In this Weekly, we outline three key non-consensus calls from... 28th October 2022 · 7 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Korean consumers facing major headwinds Consumer spending in Korea looks to have held up well recently, but this looks set to change as higher inflation and rising interest rates start to drag on confidence. And with exports set to drop... 21st October 2022 · 7 mins read
