Monetary Policy
Bank Negara Malaysia reduced its overnight policy rate to 2.75% in July 2025 and has held it steady since. That is nearly twelve months of unchanged rates in an environment where central banks across Europe, Australia, and parts of Africa have been actively moving their benchmarks in either direction,
Monetary Policy
Most central banks around the world adjust monetary policy by raising or lowering interest rates. Singapore's Monetary Authority takes a fundamentally different approach. Instead of setting a benchmark rate, the MAS manages monetary policy by controlling the level and rate of appreciation or depreciation of the Singapore dollar
Inflation
France entered 2026 with a fiscal situation that most eurozone governments would find alarming. The budget deficit reached 5.8% of GDP in 2024, the highest in the entire euro area. For 2026, the European Commission projects the deficit will remain at 5.1% of GDP. The IMF predicts France&
Economic growth
East Africa is on track to grow by 5.8% in 2026, up from 5.4% in 2025, making it the fastest-growing sub-region on the African continent by a significant margin. West Africa is projected at 4.4%, Central Africa at 3%, and Southern Africa at 2%. The
Economic growth
Ethiopia is the IMF's fastest-growing African economy in 2026, projected to expand 9.2%, more than double the sub-Saharan Africa regional average of approximately 4.3%. That number is the result of specific, deliberate interventions that have been years in the making, not a commodity windfall
Economic growth
The numbers coming out of Taiwan's statistics office in 2026 are the kind that make economists do a double take. The Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics now forecasts GDP growth of 9.6% for 2026, the highest rate in 16 years. In the first quarter of
Investments
Malaysia recorded the strongest year-on-year increase in private equity deal value across all of Southeast Asia in 2025, reaching $5.3 billion according to Bain and Company's Southeast Asia Private Equity Report. That number would have seemed improbable five years ago, when Singapore dominated regional dealmaking
Personal Finance
Gold has always had a special place in the Indian household. Weddings, savings, generational wealth transfer, and crisis protection have all historically run through the yellow metal. What is changing in 2026 is not the affection for gold but the form it takes. Indians are increasingly moving from physical gold
Investments
For nearly seven years, Vietnam sat on FTSE Russell's watchlist, tantalizingly close to emerging market status but unable to clear the final regulatory requirements. On April 7, 2026, FTSE Russell confirmed the upgrade. Starting September 21, Vietnamese equities will be included in FTSE's global index series
Stocks
The TAIEX, Taiwan's benchmark stock index, has delivered a 149% gain since the beginning of 2024, and the effects are rippling well beyond trading floors. Approximately 20% of the average Taiwanese household's wealth is now held in equities, a significantly higher share than most developed economies.
Monetary Policy
Something significant is happening to the architecture of global trade, and it is moving faster than most policymakers anticipated. What is often called deglobalisation is more accurately described as a targeted recalibration. Certain sectors, technologies, and supply chains are being reorganised around geopolitical priorities rather than cost efficiency alone. This
Monetary Policy
While central banks in Europe, Canada, and parts of Asia were cutting rates through 2025, most African central banks were moving in the opposite direction, raising rates sharply or holding them at levels that make borrowing painfully expensive for businesses and households. In 2026, that divergence is widening. Zimbabwe maintains