Malaysia’s inflation decelerates in March on sharp drop in transportation costs

Apr 20, 2016 05:44 am UTC| Commentary Economy

Malaysias inflation decelerated in March, recording nearly three standard deviations lower than the median forecast. Inflation decelerated 0.6% on a month-on-month seasonally adjusted basis, whereas core inflation...

Fundamental Evaluation Series

Economists should step out of their bubble more often

Apr 20, 2016 01:02 am UTC| Insights & Views Economy

Scratch an economist who proffers sage words about the state of government debt and you will find someone who believes we are at full employment. If we are below full employment, then the government can monetise debt via...

Indonesian economy likely grew over 5% in Q1, but risks continue to be skewed on downside

Apr 19, 2016 06:32 am UTC| Commentary Economy

Indonesia is due to release its first quarter growth data in May. The economic growth is likely to have remained above 5% y/y in Q1 2016, according to market consensus. The Indonesian government has increased its budget...

Balancing the budget mantra overlooks benefits of infrastructure spending

Apr 19, 2016 05:04 am UTC| Insights & Views Economy Politics

When the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) recently released its recommendations on how the government should balance the budget, it prefaced it with the statement No economic problem in Australia is...

The problem with measuring productivity

Apr 19, 2016 04:59 am UTC| Insights & Views Economy

Productivity seems to be one of the measures the Federal Government is using to justify its policy decisions in the lead up to the budget. The Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull invoked this little understood term in...

Currency War Series

G-20 reaffirms previous exchange rate commitments, warns against reliance on low interest rates

Apr 18, 2016 15:54 pm UTC| Commentary Economy

The G-20 countries reaffirmed their previous exchange rate commitments, including that they will refrain from competitive devaluations and they will not target their exchange rates for competitive purposes. The worlds top...

Positive inflation numbers take pressure off the RBNZ to act at April 28th meeting

Apr 18, 2016 12:09 pm UTC| Insights & Views Economy

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is scheduled to review its OCR on 28th April. Falling commodity prices and a recently stronger NZD have meant continued or increasing downward risks for New Zealand inflation. In the final...