Videos

Multinationals and investors are looking to India to deliver the next great surge in sales of consumer goods and services. But demand will not expand in a linear fashion as GDP increases. The acceleration phenomenon dictates that sales of different products and services will grow in leaps and bounds as cohorts of new consumers surpass key income thresholds.

India’s cacophonous exercise in democracy is well underway and polling suggests there is only a 50% chance of a Narendra Modi-led BJP holding onto power. Tom dives into the details of why the “bear-hugging” reformer has electoral problems this time around. Tom also considers the likely outcome of the election for Indian asset markets.

The annual EU-China summit concluded this week with usual diplomatic platitudes about deepening partnerships and strengthening cooperation. But the meeting took place against a backdrop of heightened tensions, after the EU declared China a “systemic rival” and with many European politicians highly critical of China’s economic nationalism.

Home sales in China fell by 3.6% in the first two months of 2019. This, however, was better than expected considering that this upcycle is now four years old. Lower mortgage rates and supportive policies by local governments should prop up demand, and Rosealea expects overall housing sales to decline a modest 2% for the year.

Europe has an ambivalent relationship with China that is increasingly under scrutiny. The European Commission recently labelled China a “systemic rival” and France and Germany want to create corporate champions to compete against Chinese state owned enterprises. Europe, however, is not singing from the same hymn sheet.

In the last two weeks, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has been forced to sell US dollars in the foreign exchange market to maintain the Hong Kong Dollar's peg to the US dollar. Yet far from signaling a crisis, the interventions are a symptom of confidence in Hong Kong’s financial system, which is swimming with liquidity.

The Federal Reserve is debating a fundamental shift in its inflation targeting. Right now it's targeting 2% inflation no matter what it has been in the past, a so-called "bygones" policy. In this video interview Will discusses the consequences of switching to price-level targeting, where the aim is to keep average inflation over time at 2%.

The US Federal Reserve has said it is likely to end its process of balance sheet “normalization” sooner than previously planned. This sounds like an obscure monetary technicality, but it has important implications for investors. In this video interview Will explains why.

In recent weeks, the US dollar has rallied, emerging markets have been strong and gold seems to be breaking out to the upside. That is an unusual combination, and in this video Louis outlines three possible explanations for the moves. Most provocatively, as the US-China trade talks get critical, he wonders if China is gearing up to accept a one-off revaluation of the renminbi.

More constructive rhetoric suggests the US and China may be about to strike a truce on tariffs and market access. However, that does not mean they are about to bury the hatchet. Powerful groups in Washington want to contain China’s rise as a technological power, and the US has many tools at its disposal even if it drops tariffs.