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In its latest World Economic Outlook, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) downgraded near-term global growth prospects to 3.7% from 3.9% for both 2018 and 2019. While the new projections still...

With oil prices breaching the USD80/b mark in recent weeks, markets and analysts are already taking stock of how different countries are being affected. Our analysis focuses on the effect of higher...

While oil prices are reaching a 4-year high, continued US output growth and the new Russia-Saudi Arabia oil deal are posing a question to whether the market is entering a new era. Our analysis delves...

The US Federal Reserve, widely known as simply ‘the Fed’, duly hiked short-term interest rates by 25bp for the third time this year following its 26-27th September meeting. The decision...

After more than four years in the doldrums, world trade volumes have rebounded strongly over the last two years. In fact, according to data from the Dutch Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB), a...

With the US Federal Reserve delivering a steady drip-feed of interest-rate rises, most emerging markets (EMs) are tightening monetary policy in response. A notable exception to the EM trend is China....

The key risk of the Trump Presidency, namely a global trade war, has risen markedly in recent weeks. With the US imposing a series of unilateral tariffs and the countries affected quickly responding...

OPEC deal looks to maintain oil’s sweet spotOPEC and Russia (‘OPEC+’) wound up their meetings last week by agreeing on a production increase for the first time in nearly two years....

The latest US activity and labour market data show real strength. Highlights include well-above average business surveys, near record consumer confidence and a strong non-farm payrolls report in May...

The US dollar has strengthened sharply against a basket of currencies since March 26th this year. Against the DXY index, which is a basket of major trading partner currencies, the US dollar has...

The Brent Oil price has proven to be volatile over the past 10 days. After rising to above 70 USD/b in late January, which is 55% higher than the recent low of 45 USD/b set in June last year, the...

Global markets for higher risk asset classes, such as equities, corporate bonds and emerging market government bonds, have sold off sharply in recent days in the face of rising developed market...

All has been well in the global oil market lately. Prices briefly crossed the USD70 per barrel (/b) mark last week – their highest level in three years– and had been rising throughout most...

In several high profile meetings,Chinese policy makers have stressed the need for higher quality rather than faster growth. While this is a common refrain in China, the actions the authorities have...

In 2018, global growth is expected to be 3.5%,just above the average for the post-financial crisis era but slightly down from 3.6% in 2017.The three main factors that drove the acceleration in growth...

On November 30th, the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its major non-OPEC partners, including Russia, announced an extension of the production freeze agreed last year. The...