Our Insights

China's rise to become Asia's biggest economy was fueled by coal. But over the past two decades, natural gas has taken on a more prominent role. Coal is particularly important in electricity generation and steel; gas is important for residential heating, and the government has also encouraged a switch from coal to gas for industries to improve urban air quality. ("Dual carbon" goals proposed by President Xi Jinping also call for an urgent shift toward a lower-carbon energy structure.)

Donald Trump's so-called Liberation Day coincided with previously announced 25% tariffs on imported cars taking effect. His latest tariff salvo delivered worse-than-expected news (especially for Asian economies) and unnerved global markets.

Donald Trump announced his "Liberation Day" schedule of tariffs on 180 countries and territories on April 2 to some confusion -- especially a table he presented titled "Tariffs Charged to the U.S.A. including Currency Manipulation and Trade Barriers."

More than 2 million Malaysians work in manufacturing; that accounts for about 28% of the formal workforce. By breaking down payroll data, we found that the food sector has become Malaysia's fastest job creator.

South Korea releases staggered, month-to-date foreign trade figures, providing 10-day and 20-day updates for the start of a calendar month. We've previously examined how this can be a useful and early proxy for neighboring East Asian economies. But given the outsized importance of South Korea's semiconductor sector, we can also use these figures to extrapolate demand for the global chip industry.

How much are China's consumers willing to spend instead of save? Since 2024, subsidy policies have helped push consumption higher after a post-pandemic lull.

Donald Trump's tariffs are the greatest economic challenge Canada has faced since the 1980s, according to an indicator that analyzes news flow. It's also the overwhelming challenge for new prime minister Mark Carney, who called an election for April 28 - less than two weeks after he took over the Liberal Party leadership from Justin Trudeau.

China's "Two Sessions" government meetings recently concluded. The event's speeches and economic policy documents provide more detail about China's growth targets and continued efforts to support the economy amid US tariffs and uncertainties in international trade.

Sapura Energy, once one of Malaysia's petroleum powerhouses, was stabilized in an intervention that demonstrates how ASEAN's largest oil exporter is still feeling the aftermath of last decade's price crash.

Two years ago, the Bank of Japan was seeking sustained inflation before it would end the world's last negative-rate policy. Today, we can illustrate how the central bank got its wish thanks to CEIC's market-leading Point-in-Time (PiT) datasets, which track the Bank of Japan's forecast revisions for inflation.

Less than a month after Donald Trump's inauguration, it appears that the US president's tariff threats against Canada were already showing up in high-frequency shipping data tracked by CEIC.

 Change is afoot for the Indian rupee. Sanjay Malhotra took the reins of the Reserve Bank of India in December; since then, a two-year de facto peg with the US dollar has been eased. As our chart shows, this period of very limited volatility for the USD/INR currency pair stands out.