Our Insights

As official trade data for April starts rolling in, it's clear that southeast Asia's exporting nations ramped up shipments in response to Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs. CEIC users had an early nod about this phenomenon thanks to daily shipping data from Marine Traffic.

Donald Trump has driven a rush at China's container ports. With exporters keen to get ahead of announced US tariffs and potential future escalation, weekly shipping figures are showing that container throughput in 2025 has been significantly above the 2024 trend. Traffic especially picked up in April, when the US president announced his "Liberation Day" tariffs. (At the time of publication, the US and China had agreed to significantly reduce tariffs imposed just weeks before on each other's goods.)

The US had a golden era of housing affordability in the wake of the global financial crisis. Today, first-time homebuyers are having the toughest time in decades - a three-year-old phenomenon that seems unlikely to change soon.

We're revisiting the Philippines economy in more depth. Last week's growth disappointment followed a rate cut and turn to dovish messaging by the nation's central bank.

CEIC's latest weekly nowcast offerings include national financial account balances. We've chosen to visualize Singapore; our proprietary model analyzes high-frequency variables to "predict the present" for financial flows in and out of Southeast Asia's financial hub.

As oil prices flirt with post-pandemic lows, we're exploring the relationship between crude (and other commodities) and the business cycle. Oil prices have a habit of cascading through global supply chains; to show how this is the case, we've charted the relationship between Brent crude and producer inflation (PPI) across major economies over the past two decades.

US 10-year Treasury yields have been testing their 2025 highs, reaching 4.5% again. This is largely linked to the uncertain inflation outlook stemming from Donald Trump's tariffs and a relatively hawkish stance by the Federal Reserve.

The Philippines' central bank recently cut interest rates by a quarter-point and has signaled another 75 basis points of easing could come this year. While inflation continues to slow, policymakers are also likely considering weakening economic indicators across the economy and elevated personal debt burdens. (This was also reflected in the recent GDP growth print that missed economists' expectations.)

Among industries in South Korea's diversified economy, the auto sector is the most exposed to the US market. We've highlighted major sectors' share of total South Korean exports to the US and the dependency level on the American market - i.e., the percentage of exports in that category headed stateside.

As US and China trade representatives prepare to meet, we've visualized some of Beijing's recent initiatives to support the economy at a time of tariffs.

In his first few months back in office, Donald Trump has clouded the global outlook to a degree unseen in recent years. CEIC users can measure this impact in all kinds of ways - from the news headlines to the Federal Reserve.

India's drivers are a proxy for the world's most populous economy: in turn, high-frequency data on auto registrations can be tapped for insights into global activity and key macro indicators more broadly.