Our Insights

The nation might be grappling with a growth-rattling corruption scandal, but behind the headlines, Filipinos are benefiting from a surge in purchasing power. That's likely long-term bullish for the economy.

As companies like BYD roll out inexpensive cars, China has become the epicenter of the global electric-vehicle market. In the third quarter alone, a staggering 4.2 million EVs were added to the nation’s roads. That’s almost 10 times the equivalent number for the US.

Critics call exports of non-biodegradable material "waste colonialism." ASEAN nations are a prominent international destination for scrap plastic, even as European countries raise their environmental standards and China restricts this trade.

G7 central banks are well into their loosening cycle to stimulate the economy – but 10- and 30-year government bond yields aren't following suit, as our chart shows. The synchronized repricing of risk shows how investors are demanding a steeper premium to fund deepening deficits.

Will Chinese tourists ever return to Thailand's beaches in pre-pandemic numbers? Hoteliers and airlines are hopeful that they stand to benefit from diverted tourism after the recent dispute between Beijing and Tokyo curbed Chinese travel to Japan.

When considering the financial sector, there's the developed, global financial hub of Singapore and then there's the rest of ASEAN. The city-state dominates sectors including wealth management; local champion DBS Bank is Southeast Asia’s largest lender by assets.

Despite the threat posed to its export model by Donald Trump’s tariffs, Vietnam’s wage growth has outperformed Southeast Asian peers for six straight quarters.

Vietnam's economy has posted years of strong growth, but as its consumers get richer, we can see a disconnect with auto sales: growth began levelling off before the pandemic and has been slowing slightly of late – even before Donald Trump's trade policies started threatening the nation's export model.

Pemex is Mexico's biggest enterprise. As such, the state-owned oil giant can have an outsized impact on the nation's economy, and its operational data can provide an early signal of how other Mexican businesses are performing.

As China moves up the global value chain, its government is keen to promote research & development for advanced industries.

As Donald Trump's tariffs reshape global trade, we've considered how Chinese exports to the US might be redirected to other destinations – in this case, Malaysia.

The decades-long boom in Chinese soybean demand has reshaped Brazilian agriculture; it surpassed the US as the biggest producer of this crop in the 2010s.

Meanwhile, American soy farmers, already dealing with greater seasonal swings than their Brazilian counterparts, have lost share in the Chinese market after a decade of trade friction. (Recent negotiations suggest China might step up purchases of US soybeans again.)