Our Insights

Every year, we gather key indicators on tourism and leisure spending to gauge the economy during China's most important holiday period. In 2026, the New Year (also known as the Spring Festival) saw a general uptick in spending, but an outsized surge in travel – especially to domestic destinations.

About half of the nation's fossil-fuel imports transit the Straits of Hormuz in tankers departing Saudi oil terminals and Qatari LNG facilities.

Last year, inflationary pressures looked under control in Europe. After war erupted in the Persian Gulf, that could be set to change – highlighting the continent's energy dependence on oil tankers and LNG vessels.

As shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz grinds to a halt and Iranian attacks shutter some of the world's biggest oil and LNG facilities, Asia risks economic pain.

Thailand’s shrinking labor force poses an increasing challenge to the economy. Some promising post-pandemic trends have withered, and there are fewer younger workers seeking to join the employment market than there used to be.

Is the world in for some welcome relief after the 2024-25 rebound in global food-price inflation, or is the situation merely flattered by comparisons with last year?

One of the surprising consequences of the AI boom has been a global memory-chip shortage. To feed the insatiable AI demand, semiconductor firms switched capacity to more profitable, cutting-edge categories (such as high-bandwidth memory, used in AI accelerators and data-center graphics processing units).