Asia Economics Weekly Malaysia and Korea line up fiscal responses The spread of the new coronavirus beyond China is drawing increasingly forceful policy responses, with fiscal policy taking the lead. Malaysia and Korea both announced fiscal packages in the past 24... 28th February 2020 · 8 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly The fiscal response, political worries in Thailand The policy response to the coronavirus outbreak has so far been led by the region’s central banks, but governments are also now stepping up to the plate. Earlier this week, Singapore unveiled a budget... 21st February 2020 · 6 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Singapore virus response, Cambodia on the ropes The emphasis of Singapore’s budget on Tuesday is likely to be on trying to minimise the hit to incomes and ensuring that otherwise healthy companies can make it through the crisis. Meanwhile, we have... 14th February 2020 · 8 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly New GDP growth forecasts, further rate cuts likely There is clearly a great deal of uncertainty over how long the crisis will last, but we think growth in Emerging Asia (excluding China and India) will slow by around 2.5%-points in the first quarter... 7th February 2020 · 6 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Vietnam inflation rises, Thai baht falls Inflation in Vietnam reached its highest rate since 2013 in January, but we doubt the central bank will respond by raising interest rates. Meanwhile, the Thai baht has dropped 4.5% against the US... 31st January 2020 · 8 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Coronavirus to hit tourism With the number of new cases of the coronavirus continuing to increase, concern is rising across Asia over the potential economic impact. If the virus does continue to spread, the worst affected... 24th January 2020 · 6 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Rupiah strength, palm oil worries Bank Indonesia is likely to leave interest rates unchanged at its meeting on Thursday, but the strong recent performance of the rupiah means further cuts are likely over the coming months. Meanwhile... 17th January 2020 · 7 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Taiwan election, Thailand’s currency dilemma Given her huge lead in the opinion polls, it will come as a major surprise if Tsai Ing-wen is not re-elected for a second and final term as Taiwan’s president on Saturday. However, whether Tsai can... 10th January 2020 · 6 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Oil price spike, strong growth to continue in Vietnam Oil prices have jumped following the killing of Qassem Soleimani, one of Iran’s most powerful generals, but they would need to rise much further before higher prices started to have a major impact on... 3rd January 2020 · 5 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly BoK to cut again, Sri Lanka on slow road to recovery Minutes from the Bank of Korea’s (BoK) November rate meeting reveal that while only one of the seven members of its Monetary Policy Board voted for a cut, other members also struck a dovish tone. We... 20th December 2019 · 9 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Indonesia’s fiscal rule, US-China trade truce Adopting a more flexible fiscal target would give Indonesia’s government more room to support growth during periods of weak demand without threatening the country’s fiscal position. Meanwhile, Asian... 13th December 2019 · 8 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Trade war disruption, peace hopes grow in Mindanao US trade data released earlier this week for October reveal the extent to which the US-China trade war is disrupting regional supply chains. Meanwhile, hopes are rising that martial law in Mindanao... 6th December 2019 · 6 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly VAT cut in Sri Lanka, Japan-Korea trade spat The decision by Sri Lanka’s new president to cut the rate of VAT from 15% to 8% will provide a significant boost to the economy, but will put increased strain on the country’s fragile public finances... 29th November 2019 · 6 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Recent positive data, Vietnam raises the retirement age Economic data published this week by Singapore and Korea, which are both good bellwethers for the rest of the region, add to evidence that the worst is now over for regional growth. Meanwhile, the... 22nd November 2019 · 7 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly Duterte health worries, Sri Lanka election If President Duterte is forced to leave office through ill health, Vice President Leni Robredo, who leads the main opposition party in the Philippines, would take over as president. We don’t know much... 15th November 2019 · 6 mins read
Asia Economics Weekly BSP: no more cuts in 2019, Malaysia SRR cut Governor Diokno was pretty emphatic earlier this week when he said that the central bank (BSP) had “absolutely” “done more than enough” this year. In response we are taking out the interest rate cut... 8th November 2019 · 7 mins read
