It is probably only to be expected that the official account, in the Finance Ministry’s justreleased Economic Survey 2025-26, would be generally upbeat about the Indian economy and the current policy direction of the Modi government. We have also come…
Early in January, preliminary estimates of China’s trade surplus (from the General Administration of Customs of China) placed it at $1.7 trillion in 2025, as compared with $993 million in 2024. The sharp 20 per cent rise in the trade…
In late 2024, the Institute of International Finance (IIF), the advocacy arm of global finance, put out a pessimistic projection that capital flows to emerging market economies (EMEs) are likely to fall to $716 billion in 2025 from an estimated…
Extended by a day in a show of symbolism, this year’s climate summit, the 29th Conference of Parties (COP29), ended in collapse. The widespread consensus that this was the case concealed, however, differences as to what reflected the collapse. Developed…
There’s no doubt that the election of Donald Trump as the next President of the United States sets the stage for further expansion of fossil fuel production in the US, especially of natural gas, of which the US has emerged…
For some time now, global economic news reporting has been dominated by the growth slowdown in China. The tone of that reporting is conflicted. On the one hand, there is a barely suppressed sense of satisfaction or “schadenfreude” (pleasure derived…
The latest World Employment and Social Outlook Report (update for September 2024) from the International Labour Organisation highlights some disturbing trends. Importantly, it identifies a significant decline and then stagnation in the share of labour income in GDP, for the world as…
The financial media in India and abroad are flagging the likelihood of a meltdown in India’s financial sector, resulting from large scale defaults on personal loans. Even the Financial Times of London has chosen to devote considerable column space to an article…
The recent meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in Beijing in the first week of September was an important indicator of a new phase in Africa-China economic relations. These reflect both the changing internal dynamics in China…
It is more than a year since China, reportedly in retaliation to US-driven restrictions on exports of advanced semiconductors and related manufacturing equipment, imposed export controls on two crucial materials—germanium and gallium—that enter into the production of semiconductors and military…
