Australia & New Zealand Rapid Response Australia Retail Sales (Jul.) We don’t believe that the healthy uptick in retail sales in July represents a second wind for the Australian consumer. Accordingly, we’re sticking with our view that the RBA’s tightening cycle is at... 28th August 2023 · 2 mins read
Commodities Weekly Natural gas prices strike lower; iron ore resilient It has generally been a positive week for commodity prices. Most metals and agricultural prices rose on the week, in somewhat of a turnaround from recent trends. By contrast, energy commodities fell... 25th August 2023 · 4 mins read
India Economics Weekly Moon landing, BRICS expanding, GDP withstanding Headlines in India this week have been dominated by the successful Chandrayaan-3 mission to the south pole of the moon. Second to that was the BRICS summit, which concluded with an announcement that... 25th August 2023 · 6 mins read
China Economics Weekly Property stimulus tea leaves, BRICS expansion The PBOC surprised analysts by keeping the benchmark for mortgage pricing unchanged this week. President Xi’s catch-phrase “houses are for living in, not for speculation”, widely associated with tight... 25th August 2023 · 6 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Taiwan’s economy still not out of the woods Recent data from Taiwan have been mixed, with exports showing signs of life but consumer demand softening. We think the economy will weaken in the near-term as any further support from export demand... 25th August 2023 · 6 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Case for policy rate hikes still not strong enough The inflation data released this week show that underlying inflation remains stubbornly high. However, with wages still not rising fast enough for the Bank of Japan's liking and the momentum of... 25th August 2023 · 7 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Storm clouds gather over the economic outlook New Zealand’s retail sales fell for a third consecutive quarter in Q2, as households continued to tighten their belts. What’s more, the sharp drop in heavy traffic volumes in July suggests that goods... 25th August 2023 · 6 mins read
Asset Allocation Update Equities in EM Asia ex-China may keep holding up well Equities in Emerging Asia outside China have largely outperformed their peers in other Emerging Markets (EMs) since the pandemic started. We think that they will hold up better during the global stock... 24th August 2023 · 4 mins read
Asia Economics Update CBSL on hold but rate cut still likely by end 2023 The central bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) decided to keep monetary policy unchanged today, contrary to the expectations of most analysts (including ourselves), after having slashed rates by a cumulative... 24th August 2023 · 3 mins read
Asia Economics Update BoK set to deliver rate cuts from Q4 The decision today by the Bank of Korea to leave the policy rate unchanged (at 3.5%) for a fifth consecutive meeting came as no surprise. However, comments by the central bank governor at the press... 24th August 2023 · 3 mins read
India Economics Focus Mapping India’s energy demand and emissions The government’s ambition of developing a globally-competitive manufacturing sector, combined with relatively slow progress on shifting away from using coal for electricity production, means India... 23rd August 2023 · 12 mins read
