asia

Asian cheer tempers European fear

Bolstered by some reasonably encouraging growth data, the mood in Asia overnight has been constructive, with broad gains in the major bourses of around 1%. Both Australia and South Korea recorded better than expected employment outcomes last month; in the latter, the unemployment rate fell to 3.4% in March from 3.7% previously. In both Malaysia and the Philippines, exports soared by 15% in the most recent month. Read more

12/04/2012 @ 07:19 GMT

Watching and waiting

China’s politicised declaration that it would help Europe failed to have much sustained impact on market sentiment yesterday, with both traders and investors instead focused principally on the latest machinations in Greece (see below). Northern Europe has clearly lost confidence in Greek promises, while politicians in the latter calculate that the former will ultimately not be prepared to cut them loose. Read more

16/02/2012 @ 08:23 GMT

Asia’s increased resilience

Spending a few days in Asia is focusing my mind on the extent to which this region can detach itself from what is going on in Europe. It has successfully de-coupled from problems elsewhere (in 2007-08), but does the water that has passed under the bridge since then make Asia more resilient or more vulnerable to the shockwaves from Europe? It’s a key question, especially with China again making noises about offering more solid assistance to the eurozone.

15/02/12 @ 11:38 GMT by Simon Smith, Chief Economist

Asian currencies enjoying a better time

After a dreadful wobble in the final months of 2011, Asian currencies are enjoying a better time as fresh capital is attracted by the prospect of buying cheaper assets. A tentative improvement in risk appetite has stimulated demand for investment in the emerging world. The Indian rupee, which fell more than 20% vs. the dollar in the five months to end December, is up an impressive 5.1% already for the year-to-date. International investors have been especially keen to purchase Indian bonds in recent weeks. Read more

19/01/2012 @ 10:40 GMT

Parity looms large for the Aussie

In the final months of last year and early this year, parity was regarded a huge psychological level that the Aussie dollar struggled to penetrate convincingly, before ultimately soaring to new highs above 1.10 in both the second and third quarter. However, back in late September when Europe looked to be self-destructing and investors rushed to avoid risk, the Aussie plummeted through parity on the way to a low under 0.94 early last month. Subsequently, the bulls took firm control, driving it all the way back to 1.08 by late October. Read more

10/11/2011 @ 11:55 GMT

Asia suffers from Europe’s blues

Unsurprisingly, the uncertainty created by Europe’s sovereign debt and banking crisis is infecting some of Asia’s main economies. In China, exports were up by 15.9% YoY last month, the lowest percentage gain in almost two years. In addition, the level of exports was the lowest for five months. Similarly, the pace of growth in exports from both South Korea and the Philippines last month was the weakest in two years (in the latter, it fell 27% YoY), while in Japan machinery orders were very soft in October. Read more

10/11/2011 @ 10:51 GMT

Asian growth remains defiant

There was some encouragement earlier today that Asia might just be withstanding the significant deterioration in economic conditions in Europe. According to the latest Chinese manufacturing PMI released by HSBC, the sector recorded some positive growth this month, with a first reading above 50 since June. Separately, Japanese exports were up 2.4% in the year ended September, suggesting that the trade sector is still managing to prosper despite the significant appreciation of the currency. Read more

24/10/2011 @ 10:30 GMT

A stark warning for Asia from the IMF

In a remarkably frank assessment, the IMF has warned that Europe’s sovereign debt and banking crisis represents a “severe” risk for Asia. Its growth projection for Asia for this year has been sliced from 6.8% to a still creditable 6.3%. Furthermore, the IMF cautions that the difficulties being experienced by European banks are likely to result in further selling of Asian assets, a reduction in credit lines for Asian companies and difficulty in rolling over maturing loans. Read more

13/10/2011 @ 09:44 GMT

The hollow sound of Greek promises

Stocks and also the single currency are firmer on the back of the warm words from Merkel and Sarkozy yesterday in the wake of their conference call with Greece. Whilst they are “convinced” Greece will stay in the euro area, markets are totally unconvinced that Greece will avoid default, with Greek CDS having nearly “maxed out” and 10 year yields at 25%. For his part the Greek PM committed to meet deficit–reduction targets, but there is no credibility in this promise. In May of last year, the Greek plan saw the deficit at 7.6% for this year. Read more

15/09/2011 @ 07:27 GMT

Will Singapore still swing under its new government?

Telegraph.co.uk Michael Derks, chief strategist at FxPro, comments: “It is not surprising that Singapore is the fastest growing economy in Southeast Asia: the whole economy is essentially a conduit for Asian trade. As such if China and the Chinese surrogate economies are doing well, then Singapore will also do well... View Article Read more

26/05/2011 @ 09:21 GMT

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