Asia Economics Weekly Taiwan: US trade deal and TSMC earnings add to optimism The trade deal struck between Taiwan and the US, alongside another bumper earnings report from TSMC, strengthens our conviction that Taiwan will record another year of rapid GDP growth in 2026. 16th January 2026 · 8 mins read
Asia Economics Update Will Taiwan deploy its “chips weapon”? Taiwan last year briefly flirted with imposing restrictions on its exports of semiconductors as part of an effort to assert its foreign policy interests. But there are strong reasons for officials to... 14th January 2026 · 7 mins read
Asia Economics Update Asia PMIs, Korea Trade (Dec) & Singapore GDP (Q4) The December Manufacturing PMI readings for most Asian economies remain consistent with generally soft manufacturing activity. However, the PMIs have recently been a poor guide to the hard activity... 2nd January 2026 · 3 mins read
Asia Rapid Response Taiwan Interest Rate Announcement (Dec.) Taiwan’s central bank (CBC) left its main policy rate on hold today (at 2.00%) and, with growth likely to remain strong and inflation set to stay low, policy settings look set to be left unchanged... 18th December 2025 · 2 mins read
Capital Daily Would an end to the AI boom drag down EM equities? Although emerging market equities are, in some places, very heavily exposed to the AI boom, we think they would in aggregate hold up better than those in the US if that boom continued to unwind. 17th December 2025 · 4 mins read
Asia Economic Outlook Solid growth, easing cycles drawing to a close The economic outlook across much of Asia has improved recently, prompting modest upward revisions to our 2026 GDP growth forecasts. Strong demand for AI-related products will continue to lift exports... 15th December 2025 · 25 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly BoT meets amid border clashes, Taiwan’s export boom The Bank of Thailand is likely to restart its easing cycle next week, against a backdrop of weak activity, deflation, an appreciating currency, and political/geopolitical uncertainty. Meanwhile... 12th December 2025 · 7 mins read
Asia Economics Focus Taiwan’s economy to keep flying in 2026 Taiwan is on course to record GDP growth of over 7% this year and our forecast for the economy to expand by another 5% next year lies well above the consensus. Rapid growth in exports of AI-related... 2nd December 2025 · 8 mins read
Asia Economics Update Asia Manufacturing PMIs, Korea Trade (November) The November PMI readings for most countries in Asia remained consistent with soft manufacturing activity. However, the PMIs haven’t been a great guide to the hard activity data for some economies... 1st December 2025 · 3 mins read
Latin America Economics Weekly Brazil’s slowdown, Honduras voting for Trump or Xi GDP data from Brazil due out next Thursday are likely to show that the economy contracted in Q3, which, combined with the recent fall in inflation and inflation expectations, supports our view that... 28th November 2025 · 5 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Taiwan defence spending boost, Sri Lanka rates on hold Taiwan’s President William Lai this week unveiled a TWD1.25trn (4.5% of GDP) special defence budget but it is likely that this will be watered down by the opposition-controlled parliament. Even if it... 28th November 2025 · 5 mins read
Asia Economics Update Taiwan: why aren’t consumers joining the party? Taiwan’s economy is booming and this has been driven almost entirely by exports, whereas domestic demand, and especially consumer spending, has been sluggish. That’s because faster wage increases in... 19th November 2025 · 4 mins read
Asia Economics Update Are cheap imports from China lowering Asian inflation? We aren’t convinced that cheaper imports from China had much to do with the recent sharp fall in inflation in the rest of Asia. While we expect inflation to remain soft next year, that reflects our... 11th November 2025 · 4 mins read
Capital Daily Waning enthusiasm for AI would weigh on Asian stock markets If today’s respite in stock markets doesn’t last, some tech-heavy ones in Asia would be particularly vulnerable to a deeper AI-related pull-back judging by their performance overnight. 5th November 2025 · 4 mins read
Asia Economics Update Asia Manufacturing PMIs, Korea Trade (October) The October PMI readings for most countries in Asia remained consistent with weak manufacturing activity. We expect economic growth in the region to soften in the near term and, with inflation likely... 3rd November 2025 · 3 mins read
