World

Maldives: Indebtedness and Reliance
19Feb mmBy Brian ThompsonNo Comments
World

Maldives: Indebtedness and Reliance

As the distance between Maldives and India widens, with the latter being asked to withdraw its uniformed personnel stationed in the former, questions are being asked about how Maldives will manage without India’s help on the economic and regional security fronts.
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19Feb mmBy Mike TrudellNo Comments
World

Reaching Extraordinary Development: Unrealities and Myths

Companies in India can be a powerful engine for driving economic goals. Here’s how they can realize extraordinary growth. As India anticipates a century of independence in 2047, it is committing to sustainable and inclusive growth in its goal of becoming a developed economy. This ambition is likely to see 600 million jobs created, income rising sixfold to over $12,000 per capita and GDP growing to $19 trillion.1 In realizing this goal, the private sector is an indispensable partner. We set out to understand how Indian enterprises can achieve the extraordinary growth necessary for them to propel India towards its centennial aspirations. We analyzed the performance of 837 Indian publicly traded companies between 2012 and 2022.2 The results of the research were clear. Most companies pe...
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Leader of China, Xi Jinping, is struggling with a $7 trillion recession as the nation’s debt levels rise, real estate collapses, and markets retreat more than 21% from their 2021 highs.
19Feb mmBy Walter ParezNo Comments
China, World

Leader of China, Xi Jinping, is struggling with a $7 trillion recession as the nation’s debt levels rise, real estate collapses, and markets retreat more than 21% from their 2021 highs.

As China grapples with the fallout from a $7 trillion stock decline, officials are gearing up to brief President Xi Jinping on measures to stabilize the market. This move signifies Beijing’s urgency to restore investor confidence and halt the market’s slide, which has erased a significant value from Hong Kong and China equities since their 2021 peaks. The Shanghai Composite Index, for example, is down over 21% from its high in December 2021. The downturn has been attributed to a variety of factors, including regulatory crackdowns, geopolitical tensions, real estate defaults and internal economic pressures, prompting a call for decisive action to prevent further damage to consumer confidence, especially as the country approached the Lunar New Year holiday. China’s real estate sector ...
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Year of the Dragon: China is at a turning point in its efforts to boost the economy
19Feb mmBy Joe RodriguezNo Comments
China, World

Year of the Dragon: China is at a turning point in its efforts to boost the economy

Analysts say Beijing needs to roll out measures to stimulate greater domestic consumption amid slowing growth. China last year narrowly beat its economic growth target of 5 percent, one of its lowest benchmarks in decades. Looking ahead, analysts expect the economy to face stiff headwinds in the Year of the Dragon. Against the backdrop of a crisis-stricken property market, subdued export earnings and crackdowns on private industry, international investors are pulling out of Chinese stocks at record rates. With business sentiment faltering, economists broadly agree that Beijing needs to roll out measures to stimulate more domestic consumption. While some analysts are calling for radical measures to jolt China’s economy, expectations are subdued owing to Beijing’s aversion to br...
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India-Bangla trade ties
18Feb mmBy Brian ThompsonNo Comments
Asia, World

India-Bangla trade ties

Connectivity, industrial development and trade were the key themes in discussions over economic cooperation between Bangladesh and India. The Planning Commissions of both countries were at the forefront of negotiations to envision a new economic and industrial future. After 1971, Bangladesh set up a newly minted planning commission with economists trained from Cambridge and Harvard. The new commission sought to adapt best practices from both India and Pakistan. The Indian model was a research-centric commission, whereas the Pakistani model was a centralized commission overseen by the head of state. Diversifying exports The trade deficit with India was one of the areas identified by the Bangladesh Planning Commission for redressal. Professor Rehman Sobhan, who served in the first ...
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That Sinking Feeling: Pakistan continues to struggle with a severe political unrest while still being engulfed in an economic catastrophe.
16Feb mmBy Brian ThompsonNo Comments
World

That Sinking Feeling: Pakistan continues to struggle with a severe political unrest while still being engulfed in an economic catastrophe.

The national and provincial governments are poised to have weak coalitions at the helm. These will struggle for credibility amidst PTI’s refrain of a stolen mandate, and may leave tough economic reforms on the backburner, thereby intensifying the existential crisis Pakistan finds itself in The outcome of recent elections has increased political uncertainties in Pakistan. The elections resulted in Independent candidates supporting Imran Khan winning 92 seats (Total number of Independents 101). This exceeded the tally of PML-N (79) and PPP (54) seats. No party secured a simple majority. A coalition government has been announced headed by Shehbaz Sharif. This includes PML(N), PPP, MQM, and smaller parties. While they would be able to muster a majority, it would be a weak coalition. Its le...
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Industries Promising to Offer Superior Returns to Speculators in the Future
16Feb mmBy Walter ParezNo Comments
World

Industries Promising to Offer Superior Returns to Speculators in the Future

According to the Asian Development Bank, the Indian economy is expected to grow by approximately 8% in the next 5-6 years, endorsed by increasing public investment in infrastructure and a pickup in private sector investment. Investors, motivated by the results of their investments in the past fiscal year, are prepared to devote a significant gear percentage of their savings to capital instruments in the forthcoming years. They are also motivated to invest in the growing industries in India. Numerous experts speculate that the Indian Stock Market will also have progressed and expanded to the fifth largest in the world, accounting for the highest market capitalization. The market grows with various stepping elements supporting this expansion, such as government initiatives, foreign re...
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16Feb mmBy Michael SmithNo Comments
China, World

China’s Economy in the Year of the Dragon: It’s a bleak place

At the end of January, a Hong Kong judge ordered the liquidation of the heavily-indebted Chinese real estate giant Evergrande. It was just the latest piece of bad news for China’s economy, after a year of disappointing growth, high youth unemployment, and various surveys and media reports that show a lack of confidence amongst China’s entrepreneurs and consumers. Some observers have been predicting an economic collapse in China for decades. Others have long predicted that China would be stuck in a middle-income trap or some other type of economic stagnation. Might some of these predictions come true this time? What does the Year of the Dragon have in store for consumers, companies, and markets? What should we look out for this year to understand both China’s real economy and its financ...
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Can the IMF help Pakistan and how terrible is its financial crisis?
14Feb mmBy Brian ThompsonNo Comments
World

Can the IMF help Pakistan and how terrible is its financial crisis?

Negotiations on a new government in Pakistan have allayed immediate fears of instability in the nuclear-armed nation following inconclusive elections last week, but the risk of a full-scale economic crisis remains.A $3 billion programme from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) runs out next month and securing a new and much bigger one is widely seen as the priority for the new administration.WHO COULD THE IMF NEGOTIATE WITH?The largest party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), secured support on Tuesday from the second biggest, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), and is trying to persuade it to form a majority coalition.The caretaker government in place since August is implementing the IMF loan programme which helped to avert a sovereign debt default when it was approved in July. ...
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A think tank claims that while the collapse of Evergrande is not China’s “Lehman moment,” it does make economic recovery more difficult.
14Feb mmBy Mike TrudellNo Comments
China, World

A think tank claims that while the collapse of Evergrande is not China’s “Lehman moment,” it does make economic recovery more difficult.

China's crumbling property sector, its stock market crash, and its gummed-up economy have drawn some comparisons to the 2008 crash in the US. A few weeks ago, the Chinese property giant Evergrande received a liquidation order from a Hong Kong court, forcing the sale of its assets to repay the company's $300 billion worth of debt. This has spurred on the question: is the Evergrande collapse China's "Lehman moment?" The answer, according to one think tank, is no. But it does pose an obstacle to an economic rebound. "Evergrande's bankruptcy is not China's Lehman moment; its downfall is unlikely to immediately trigger a contagion across the entirety of China's financial system," Zongyuan Zoe Liu, a Council of Foreign Relations expert, wrote on Tuesday. Back in 2008, Lehman Brot...
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