11 February 2020 Since the election in May, India's GDP growth has decelerated sharply: advancing only 4.5% in Q3 2019 compared to 7.3% in 2018. Does this sharp slowdown in economic activity simply reflect short-term volatility or is something more ominous going on? Identifying the sources of the current weakness will help answer this question. [...]
30 January 2020 In its recently released report on foreign exchange markets, the US Treasury added Switzerland to its watchlist of currency manipulators. To be sure, the Swiss franc does meet some of the criteria. Indeed, Switzerland's current account surplus is a staggering 10% of GDP, and its bilateral trade surplus with the USA has [...]
20 January 2020 A comprehensive trade agreement between the United States and China was never a realistic possibility: these take years of skillful negotiations to conclude. To be sure, the recently-signed plan has many shortcomings. Predictably, the deal fails to address many of the most contentious issues, e.g. state subsidies and cyber-security. Likewise, the dispute [...]
12 January 2020 The prospect that this week the USA and China will sign Phase 1 of a trade deal has buoyed financial markets. Of course, I will assess the impact of the agreement as details emerge. However, initial optimism is warranted if the plan represents the first step towards a comprehensive trade agreement (even [...]