UK Economics Update Brexit Watch: Fading red lines? The UK Government’s stated Brexit “red lines” appear to have faded further judging by the latest batch of position papers. However, the lack of a formal UK position on the financial settlement risks a... 25th August 2017 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly How will New Zealand’s election affect its economy? The general election in New Zealand could have a bigger influence on the economy than seemed possible a few weeks ago. If National needs the support of NZ First to form a majority government then the... 25th August 2017 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Weekly Efforts to reform labour market fall short Japan’s government is worried that a sharp increase in the number of part-time workers will feed into weaker growth in productivity in future and it has proposed a package of labour reforms in... 25th August 2017 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Chart Pack Qatar crisis reaches an impasse The diplomatic crisis between Qatar and regional powers seems to be in deadlock. Saudi Arabia and its allies revised their demands in July to something that appeared to be more palatable for Doha, but... 24th August 2017 · 1 min read
Africa Chart Pack Africa: Politics grabs headlines as key economies strengthen Attention this month focused on unfolding political dramas in Africa’s key economies. The president of South Africa narrowly saw off another no-confidence vote, Kenya’s president was re-elected in a... 24th August 2017 · 1 min read
Latin America Economic Outlook Recovery to strengthen over coming year After a torrid couple of years, the economies of Latin America have turned a corner and we expect growth to strengthen over the rest of 2017 and into 2018. Inflation has fallen in most countries and... 23rd August 2017 · 1 min read
Asia Chart Pack Will other central banks follow Bank Indonesia? Despite the current subdued rates of inflation across most of Emerging Asia, we don’t expect many of the region’s central banks to copy Bank Indonesia, which yesterday surprised markets by cutting... 23rd August 2017 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update Hard work begins for Macron as 100-day honeymoon ends After 100 days in office, French President Emmanuel Macron has already begun to reform the labour market. But a decline in his approval rating and a darker fiscal outlook will make it difficult for... 21st August 2017 · 1 min read
UK Economics Update Brexit Watch: Customs paper overly-optimistic On the face of it, the two further position papers published this week by the Department for Exiting the EU, on Northern Ireland and potential future customs arrangements, point to a fairly soft form... 18th August 2017 · 1 min read
Africa Economics Update Nigeria: New survey quantifies cost of corruption A new survey of corruption in Nigeria’s public service underlines the economic costs of its onerous FX and customs regime. The publication of the commendable frank survey is, in itself, a very... 18th August 2017 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Weekly Is Japan still building bridges to nowhere? Japan’s government has scaled back its public investment spending dramatically since the 1990s but it remains high by international standards. The quality of the country’s infrastructure is therefore... 18th August 2017 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Update German election is Merkel’s to lose as campaigning kicks off With Angela Merkel’s party far ahead in the polls and pledging to pay off debt and cut taxes rather than increase investment, it looks set to be more of the same in Germany after September’s election... 16th August 2017 · 1 min read
China Chart Pack Strong bank earnings conceal gloomy outlook Official data published on Monday show that commercial banks’ non-performing loan (NPL) ratio held steady at 1.74% in Q2 and that their net profits grew almost 12% y/y, the fastest pace since 2014... 16th August 2017 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Update Qatar’s diplomatic crisis: the economic hit so far The early evidence suggests that the diplomatic crisis between Qatar and regional powers dealt a damaging, but apparently brief, blow to Qatar’s economy. 15th August 2017 · 1 min read
Latin America Economics Update Argentina: Macri in decent shape ahead of legislative elections With most of the votes in Argentina’s primary legislative elections now counted, it appears that support for President Macri’s ruling coalition has held up better-than-expected, and the peso is likely... 14th August 2017 · 1 min read
Nordic & Swiss Chart Pack Geopolitical tensions halt Swiss franc’s slide The Swiss franc has had a rocky ride over the past month. In late July, it depreciated sharply to SFr1.15 to the euro, its lowest level since January 2015 when the Swiss National Bank abandoned its... 11th August 2017 · 1 min read
