Asia Economics Update Korea: drag from weak construction set to continue Construction spending in Korea is falling sharply as developers respond to an oversupply of new homes by cutting back on new projects. The sector’s weakness will remain a major drag on economic growth... 3rd October 2023 · 2 mins read
Asia Economics Update Manufacturing PMIs, Korean trade, Indonesia CPI The PMIs for September suggest that manufacturing activity across Emerging Asia remained weak last month. Worryingly, the PMIs point to a further rise in price pressures across the region, with the... 2nd October 2023 · 2 mins read
Asia Economic Outlook Economic weakness to prompt policy easing in 2024 GDP growth across most of Emerging Asia has struggled over the past year and we expect growth to remain weak in the near term as tight monetary policy at home and subdued activity abroad weigh on... 25th September 2023 · 34 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Bad news on inflation Headline inflation across Emerging Asia jumped last month due to a rise in food and fuel price inflation. We have raised our inflation forecasts for a number of countries to reflect the deterioration... 8th September 2023 · 5 mins read
Asia Economics Update Inflation in Korea set to resume downward trend soon The jump in inflation in August was driven by temporary factors and we don’t think this marks the start of a sustained rise in inflation, especially since core inflation continued to drop back... 5th September 2023 · 3 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Weak data from Korea puts pressure on BoK This week’s data dump from Korea suggests the economy weakened at the start of Q3, increasing the chances that the BoK will cut interest rates soon. 1st September 2023 · 6 mins read
Asia Economics Update Manufacturing PMIs & Korea Trade (August.) Manufacturing PMIs across most of Emerging Asia stood well inside contractionary territory in August. Weak foreign goods demand, elevated interest rates at home and bloated inventory levels suggest... 1st September 2023 · 2 mins read
Asia Economics Update Higher food prices pose risk to disinflation process Inflation across Emerging Asia should continue to decline over the coming months. However, the risks are to the upside amid uncertainty over the outlook for food prices. And while we are sticking with... 15th August 2023 · 3 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Korea labour market weakness, Singapore Q2 GDP The slowing labour market in Korea adds to the evidence that the economy is struggling, and supports our view that the central bank will cut interest rates before the end of the year. Meanwhile... 11th August 2023 · 8 mins read
Asia Economics Update Manufacturing PMIs & Korea Trade (July.) Manufacturing PMIs remained in contractionary territory across most of Emerging Asia last month and the underlying data point to further weakness ahead. Falling new orders, bleak employment prospects... 1st August 2023 · 2 mins read
Asia Economics Update Korea: GDP data worse than it looks GDP growth in Korea rebounded in the second quarter, but the data was far worse than it looks, with all of the major sub-components contracting. With weak global demand set to drag on exports and high... 25th July 2023 · 3 mins read
Emerging Markets Economics Update Assessing the early evidence of “friend-shoring” in EMs One way in which EMs may benefit from the fragmentation of the global economy into US- and China-aligned blocs is via “friend-shoring”. There appears to be evidence that the US is importing a higher... 19th July 2023 · 4 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Thai election farce, BoK’s hawkish hold, El Niño risks The winner of Thailand’s election, Pita Limjaroenrat of the Move Forward Party, on Thursday failed to secure enough votes in parliament to become the country’s next prime minister. This raises the... 14th July 2023 · 6 mins read
Asia Economics Update BoK to change course soon The Bank of Korea today left interest rates unchanged (at 3.5%) and the accompanying statement and press conference were more hawkish than we had anticipated. Accordingly, we are pushing back the... 13th July 2023 · 3 mins read
