Asia

Given subdued inflation, exogenous headwinds, there is a case for RBI, MPC to cut rates to offset drags in second half of fiscal year India’s gross domestic product (GDP) has consistently exceeded expectations after the Covid pandemic subsided. This trend has continued so far in this fiscal, given a first-quarter print of 7.8 per cent that trumped consensus by nearly a percentage point. A notable macro development is the faster-than-anticipated decline in inflation that, until last fiscal, stayed elevated. This prompted the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and professional forecasters to lower their inflation projections. Mint Road now expects consumer inflation to average 3.1 per cent, according to the August monetary policy review statement, compared to the 4 per cent forecast in A...

Pakistan’s recent embrace of Bitcoin and digital finance marks a dramatic shift in its economic strategy, one that blends technological ambition with fiscal desperation. In March 2025, the government established the Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC), led by Bilal Bin Saqib, a young and dynamic figure who also serves as the State Minister for Crypto & Blockchain. Pakistan officially announced the creation of its first government-led Strategic Bitcoin Reserve on May 29, 2025, during the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas. Alongside the PCC, the Pakistan Digital Assets Authority (PDAA) was created to draft regulations for cryptocurrencies, digital wallets, and blockchain systems. These institutions represent a bold attempt to formalize and harness the power of digital assets, with p...

Last week, Nepal became the third South Asian country in three years to see its government collapse under the weight of mass protests. On September 8, after the government banned twenty-six social media platforms, young Nepalis poured into Kathmandu’s streets, furious at what they saw as an attempt to silence criticism. The protests escalated, leaving more than seventy people dead and causing hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of damage. Analysts have rushed to dissect the political intrigue behind the resignation of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and the appointment of former Chief Justice Sushila Karki as interim leader. But focusing only on the political aspects of these crises misses the bigger picture: economic despair fueled this...

Sri Lanka in 2022. Bangladesh in 2024. Indonesia in August 2025…and now Nepal, a month later. The past few years have been littered with youth-led uprisings in Asian countries, coming at a time when the headline growth numbers have not resulted in better lives for those entering the labour force. At the same time, the ruling elite and business class seem to have prospered. Over the last week, the children of Nepal’s political class have come under heavy fire for displaying their luxurious lifestyles on social media, with the phrase ‘nepo kids’ trending as the Gen Z’s ire over corruption took centre-stage. In 2024, Nepal was ranked 107 out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s corruption rankings. Bangladesh was ranked 151, Sri Lanka 121, and Indonesia 99. If politics ...

Large-scale riots, gunfire at protestors, the Parliament building set ablaze, the prime minister’s resignation: this is what Nepal is witnessing at the moment. A social media ban, which has now been lifted, was only the tipping point. Nepal’s economy has been reeling under internal stress for a long time. The unemployment rate has been consistently above 10 per cent for over three decades. It stood at 10.7 per cent in 2024. Meanwhile, it was 4.3 per cent for South Asia and 4.9 per cent for the world, according to the World Bank. The economic output of Nepal is weak, a fact that’s clearly visible in its low per capita GDP. In 2024, it was only Intl$5,737, nearly half of the South Asian average and one-fourth of the global average. A high unemployment rate and ...