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Thailand's central bank puzzled investors last week by raising interest rates for the third time since August. This tightening comes as the economy is slowing - growth has dropped from [...]

Six months after it was initially proposed, the Philippine Congress finally ratified an increase in 'sin' taxes on alcohol and tobacco. Despite the delay, it is encouraging that the government [...]

For foreign investors in the mainland, the problem has never been the 'socialism' but the 'Chinese characteristics', to use Deng Xiaoping's phrase. In other words, few international companies or institutions [...]

The reform of China's banks usually steals the headlines, but efforts to clean up the country's securities houses are also accelerating. And a two-pronged strategy is emerging. The few well-managed [...]

When demographic challenges are mentioned, one usually thinks of the ageing societies of Europe and Japan. But an even bigger long-term problem is being created in China. Hong Kong, a [...]

'Continuity' is a theme being trumpeted by the Republicans following the re-election of President George W. Bush. How right they are. Even the slogans can be re-used: simply turn 'ABB' [...]

Much of the commentary about China's decision to increase interest rates last week has focused on the wrong target. The move is aimed primarily at inflation, not economic overheating. Of [...]

Much of the commentary about China's decision to increase interest rates last week has focused on the wrong target. The move is aimed primarily at inflation not economic overheating. Of [...]

Through gritted teeth, Roh Moo-hyun last week accepted the demise of his plan to relocate South Korea's administrative capital south of Seoul. The decision by the Constitutional Court to block [...]

Will there be higher rates in Japan as well, now that even the Bank of Japan is prepared to forecast an end to the country's struggle with deflation? Not for [...]

It is a well established tradition that Hong Kong companies help out Beijing by buying into the initial public offerings of Chinese state companies. Li Ka-shing's Hutchison, for example, has [...]

It is a well-established tradition that Hong Kong companies help out Beijing by buying into the initial public offerings Chinese state companies. Li Ka-shing's Hutchison, for example, has purchased shares [...]

When the Reserve Bank of India meets for its bi-annual policy meeting tomorrow, it faces a difficult choice between supporting growth or fighting rising prices. Superficially, it should tackle the [...]

In China, by contrast, inflation is becoming less of a worry, having dropped slightly to 5.2 per cent in September. Indeed, all of last Friday's data appear to confirm the [...]

Hong Kong is not the only unemployment hot-spot in Asia. While job growth across the region has picked up in the past few months, progress has been uneven. The Philippines, [...]

Last week's real estate auction in Hong Kong was the most dramatic for years. After three hours of heated bidding, a couple of the territory's big property companies ended up [...]

BEIJING and TAIPEI -- China yesterday dismissed concessions by Taiwan on direct flights between the two rivals, accusing the island's president of dangerous insincerity and warning that moves to promote [...]

At the start of thisyear, one of the surest ways of making money in the financial markets was to borrow cheap US dollars and invest them in higher-yielding assets outside [...]

At the start of this year, one of the surest ways of making money in the financial markets was to borrow cheap US dollars and invest them in higher yielding [...]

There has been growing speculation that the Chinese authorities will soon remove, or at least relax, the administrative measures they imposed earlier this year in order to cool off the [...]

HONG KONG -- It looks like one of those contradictions that have efficient market enthusiasts in despair: China, the fastest-expanding large economy in the world, is on course for another [...]

India released some cracking growth figures late last week, with gross domestic product rising 7.4 per cent in the three months to June. This was not only well above expectations; [...]

Tomorrow, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should be officially declared Indonesia's new president, the first to be directly and democratically elected. Unfortunately, the country's economic progress has not matched its political advances. [...]

Few people in Thailand dare to stand up to Thaksin Shinawatra, the country's populist, billionaire prime minister. Central bank governor Pridiyathorn Devakula is a rare exception. Mr Pridiyathorn has been [...]

India released some cracking growth figures late last week, with gross domestic product rising 7.4 per cent in the three months to June. This was not only well above expectations; [...]

As the Group of Seven finance ministers gather in Washington this Friday, it is disappointing to note that since their Dubai meeting a year ago, the world's financial imbalances have [...]

Last week, Hong Kong's banks raised their lending and deposit rates. The increase was tiny - only around a tenth of a percentage point - but it was the first [...]

With depressing regularity, we are told that it is essential to plan early for our later years. Surely this applies to companies as well as individuals? And perhaps even to [...]

The 'Lucky Country' is enjoying a remarkable streak. Australia's economy looks set to expand for the 14th year in a row, with gross domestic product forecast to grow by about [...]

It is ironic that just as fears over China's slowing growth have started to dissipate, alarm bells are starting to ring about the rest of Asia. Goldman Sachs, to-date one [...]

The US election campaign has entered its hot phase while the US economy is still struggling to create employment: ideal conditions for a fresh groundswell of political outrage over how [...]

Honesty is a weapon politicians rarely deploy. Perhaps that is why it seems to be working for Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the Philippines' president. Since she admitted three weeks ago that [...]

The US election campaign has entered its hot phase and the US economy is still struggling to create employment. These are ideal conditions for a fresh groundswell of political outrage [...]

This is more than can be said about China's management of its economy. After all the talk of hard landing versus soft landing, the real question at the moment is [...]

After a steep drop in April, followed by three flat months, Asian stocks have started to perk up. Since the middle of August, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index has gained [...]

Asia's emerging markets seem to have become the canary in the global economic coal mine. Last year they weakened most during the spring and summer because of the outbreak of [...]

After almost six years, Hong Kong has beaten deflation. In July, the territory's consumer price index rose for the first time since October 1998, gaining 0.9 per cent year-on-year. Conventional [...]

It is just a single statistic, but a powerful one: last month, Japan's consumer confidence hit its highest level since June 1991 - a time when the country's asset bubble [...]

DAN BOGLE ON MONDAY Investors, economists and policymakers are not sure whether the US economy is currently slowing down or speeding up. What hope then for those analysing China, who [...]

The Philippines is one of Asia's most prolific and least responsible sovereign borrowers, with public sector debt amounting to nearly Dollars 100bn (Pounds 55m) or more than 120 per cent [...]

South Korea's policy-makers seem to have woken up at last to the fragile state of the country's consumers - and hence of the domestic economy. Last Thursday's surprise cut in [...]

To the accolades being accorded the merger dance of Japan's big banks - UFJ, MTFG and SMFG - let me add one more. Not only are we talking about the [...]

A clutch of benign economic statistics released over the past weeks suggests that China is gliding towards a soft landing. Industrial output and money supply growth both moderated in July [...]

HONG KONG -- Asia's remarkable economic recovery since the depths of the Sars crisis a little over a year ago has been based almost entirely on the corporate sector. Capital [...]

It is hard to invest in South Korea and remain an optimist. Just as domestic political chaos and the threat of a nuclear crisis - the problems of this spring [...]

A propitious monsoon and hence a booming economy did not save India's BJP from electoral defeat in May. But disappointing rains are certainly not going to help the new Congress-led [...]

Globally, economic expansion is starting to slow while inflation threatens to rise as productivity growth drops - an unappetising mix, discussed in this column on July 12. Will Asia buck [...]

A slowdown notwithstanding, China will be Asia's fastest-growing economy in 2004. But who is likely to come in second? India, Thailand, Taiwan and Hong Kong are all expanding rapidly. Yet [...]

Hong Kong's economy has staged a convincing recovery of its own. Booming exports from China have been the main driver. But rising asset prices at home and an influx of [...]

Investors wishing to gauge the stomach India's new government has for genuine fiscal reform should watch its struggle with the Employees Provident Fund, the country's largest pension scheme. The EPF, [...]