Africa Economics Update Nigeria: 2016 budget looks too ambitious Nigeria’s 2016 budget, presented to parliament yesterday, relies on overly optimistic economic assumptions, although at least the focus on raising capital spending marks a welcome change. 23rd December 2015 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Update Is Japan’s government really spending more than ever? At first sight, Japan’s budget plans suggest that the government is planning to loosen the purse strings next year. In fact, fiscal policy will probably be tightened again. 23rd December 2015 · 1 min read
India Chart Pack Reform agenda fails to launch in 2015 On the face of it, 2015 has been a decent year for the Indian economy. Admittedly, activity indicators are pointing to a slow and bumpy recovery, but conditions have undoubtedly improved following... 23rd December 2015 · 1 min read
Frontier Markets Wrap Argentina goes orthodox The inauguration of President Mauricio Macri has brought about a shift towards more orthodox economic policymaking in Argentina. Over a decade of populist and interventionist macroeconomic policy has... 22nd December 2015 · 1 min read
UK Data Response GfK/NOP Consumer Confidence (Dec.) The latest consumer confidence figures support our expectation that Q4 will have been another strong quarter for the consumer. But we anticipate that spending growth will wane a little next year as... 22nd December 2015 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Economics Update Falling oil prices add to headwinds facing Russia’s economy The latest fall in oil prices has added to the uncertainty over the outlook for Russia’s economy. In this Update we revisit the mechanisms through which lower oil prices affect Russia and outline what... 21st December 2015 · 1 min read
Global Economics Update A selection of our key calls for 2016 and beyond Advanced economies are likely to continue their steady recovery during the coming year or two, albeit with the euro-zone and Japan still lagging well behind the US and UK. Tighter labour market... 18th December 2015 · 1 min read
UK Economics Chart Pack Looking good ahead of Christmas The official measure of retail sales painted a rather more upbeat picture of high street spending in the early run-up to Christmas than the anecdotal evidence. The true picture probably lies somewhere... 17th December 2015 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economic Outlook Revival won't last long The recent resurgence in activity in both Australia and New Zealand is not the start of a sustained period of strong GDP growth. While the near-term outlook has improved, GDP growth in both economies... 17th December 2015 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Update Exemptions for food won’t dampen blow from sales tax hike The decision to exempt food from the sales tax hike due in 2017 will not make much difference to theblow it causes to economic momentum. It may however make an early election more likely. 16th December 2015 · 1 min read
India Economics Update What is holding up the Goods and Services Tax? Passage of the long-awaited Goods and Services Tax (GST) in India continues to be delayed by major issues ranging from disagreements over the tax rate itself to which items will be covered. Given this... 16th December 2015 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Focus MYEFO – Hiding a larger structural fiscal hole The decision by the Treasurer to use the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) to draw attention to the deterioration in the fiscal position triggered by the weak economic backdrop is one that... 15th December 2015 · 1 min read
China Economics Update PBOC hints at move to tracking basket The People’s Bank appears to be shifting its management of the renminbi to tracking a currency basket rather than the dollar. While some will see this as cover for currency devaluation, we suspect the... 11th December 2015 · 1 min read
Canada Economics Weekly Unconventional policy toolkit unlikely to be tested While we have long argued that the fallout from the oil shock would be disruptive and that hopes for an export revival were misplaced, we doubt that the Bank of Canada will need to resort to negative... 11th December 2015 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly Falling further away from fiscal surplus In the upcoming fiscal update, the Australian Treasurer is going to have to admit that the cumulative budget deficit over the next four years is going to be some $30bn bigger than expected in May’s... 11th December 2015 · 1 min read
Latin America Economics Update Argentina: a reform checklist Mauricio Macri will be sworn in as president of Argentina today against a backdrop of lofty expectations in financial markets for policy change. The lesson from other EMs is that big reforms tend to... 10th December 2015 · 1 min read
