Middle East & North Africa Rapid Response Saudi Arabia Inflation (Mar. 2023) Saudi Arabia’s headline inflation rate slowed from 3.0% y/y in February to 2.7% y/y in March as both food and non-food inflation decreased last month. We think that inflation will continue to ease... 13th April 2023 · 2 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Weekly Egyptian inflation, Tunisia-IMF, end to the Yemen war? Headline inflation in Egypt accelerated to its fastest pace since mid-2017 last month and, while there are tentative signs that it could be near its peak, the risk of another devaluation would push it... 13th April 2023 · 6 mins read
Emerging Europe Data Response Russia Consumer Prices (Mar.) Russian inflation fell sharply in March, to 3.5% y/y, as the surge in prices immediately after the war started to fall out of the annual comparison. The 0.4% m/m increase suggests that price pressures... 12th April 2023 · 3 mins read
Emerging Europe Economics Update Military providing only a small boost to Russia’s economy We’re not convinced by the arguments currently doing the rounds that military spending in Russia artificially boosted GDP in a significant way last year. While military spending has increased further... 12th April 2023 · 5 mins read
India Data Response Consumer Prices (Mar.) & Industrial Production (Feb.) The drop in headline consumer price inflation back to within the RBI’s 2-6% target range in March supports our view that the central bank’s hiking cycle has come to an end. 12th April 2023 · 2 mins read
Emerging Europe Data Response Turkey Activity Data (Feb.) Turkish industrial production and retail sales figures for February showed that the impact of the earthquakes on the economy was larger than we and most others had anticipated. But we think this will... 12th April 2023 · 3 mins read
China Rapid Response Bank Lending & Broad Credit (Mar.) Bank loan growth jumped to a 17-month high in March. And broad credit growth rose to its highest since December. Both were stronger than most anticipated. We expect broad credit growth to accelerate a... 11th April 2023 · 3 mins read
India Economics Weekly New FTP will fall short of lofty ambitions The government's new Foreign Trade Policy is underpinned by ambitions to boost exports to US$2trn by FY29/30 and increase the use of the rupee settlement mechanism, both of which are tough tasks... 6th April 2023 · 6 mins read
Emerging Europe Economics Weekly Weak CEE activity data, Romania’s FX reserves surge The batch of hard activity data and surveys released across Central Europe this week were relatively weak and suggest that GDP contracted in most countries again in Q1. Downside risks to Q2 have also... 6th April 2023 · 7 mins read
China Economics Weekly Infrastructure supporting services-led recovery The shape of China’s post-zero-COVID rebound has become clearer over the past week: primarily services-driven, as expected, but with stronger construction activity too, which appears to be mostly... 6th April 2023 · 8 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Weekly OPEC+ cuts and the Gulf, Saudi labour, Morocco-IMF The surprise voluntary oil output cut by OPEC+ will directly shave 1-2%-pts off GDP growth in the region’s members this year, which has prompted us to revise down our 2023 GDP growth forecasts. That... 6th April 2023 · 8 mins read
India Economics Update RBI unlikely to tighten policy any further The RBI’s decision to keep the repo rate on hold at 6.50% today belied the central bank’s recent hawkish communications. The door remains ajar for hikes in the future but with headline inflation set... 6th April 2023 · 3 mins read
Emerging Markets Economic Outlook First to hike, first to cut Aggregate EM GDP growth will be much stronger this year than last, but that’s almost entirely a result of China’s reopening rebound. Growth in most other EMs will be weaker and will generally... 4th April 2023 · 27 mins read
India Economics Update External vulnerabilities likely to ease The widening in India’s current account deficit last year, to 2.4% of GDP, was not as significant as many had feared in the context of the surge in commodity prices. Looking ahead, we think the... 4th April 2023 · 3 mins read