Our Insights

Donald Trump stepped up his pressure on Jerome Powell this week, criticizing the Federal Reserve chair for not cutting interest rates. Reports said the US president was considering naming Powell's successor early in a bid to undermine the last year of the Fed chief's tenure.

High-frequency indicators give CEIC users early insight into official data published with a time lag.

In this case, we've charted the correlation between commodity prices and China's producer price index (PPI) -- showing that the deflationary trend seen since mid-2024 is likely to break.

With an Israel-Iran ceasefire holding for now, we've examining the effects on shipping using high-frequency data from MarineTraffic. Since Israel's June 13 attack on Iranian nuclear and military facilities, Middle East port arrivals and departures -- perhaps surprisingly -- are rebounding on a year-on-year basis.

The Israel-Iran conflict has oil traders and shipping firms focused on the Strait of Hormuz -- a critical chokepoint for Middle East energy exports. A blockade by Iran would have global implications for inflation and oil prices, but arguably the disruption would be most keenly felt in Asia-Pacific countries -- the key destination for Persian Gulf oil.

Real wages among ASEAN-6 countries have remained broadly stagnant, with nominal increases offset by a rising cost of living. This is particularly the case for Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines -- but even high-income Singapore is not immune.

Is the US fiscal path sustainable, especially given sticky inflation, higher-for-longer interest rates and the Trump administration's unpredictable policy mix? Questions were raised after a government bond auction in May was poorly received, but more recent debt sales indicated there is still robust demand for long-term securities.

Financial crises are not all created equally. We can take a historic look at the severity of various episodes since the 1990s thanks to fund-flow data from our partners at EPFR - and compare the differing levels of global contagion on equities and bonds.

Japan had broadly welcomed the current turn from deflation to inflation, but the recent spiral in rice prices is starting to seriously strain household budgets.

Indonesia is the world's largest coal exporter, and its production hit a new high last year; China is its top market for the mineral (and the world's No. 1 coal importer more broadly).

Discover how CEIC’s timely, locally sourced datasets on Gold and Precious Metals can help you navigate supply and demand shifts, build smarter models, and stay ahead of market-moving trends. 

India might be the world's fastest-growing major economy, but the pace wasn't enough for Sanjay Malhotra, the recently installed governor of the Reserve Bank of India. He unexpectedly cut the central bank's key rate by 50 basis points a week ago and slashed the cash reserve ratio for lenders.

While most developed economies continue to grapple with sticky inflation, Switzerland is actually seeing consumer prices shrink. As a result, some observers see a return to negative interest rate policies as a distinct possibility.