• Mon-02-2025
Inside Bhutan’s Plan to Boost Its Economy With ‘Mindful Capitalism’ (January 16, 2025, Time)

Such a transformative influx of foreign cash risks seeding new power centers and patronage networks that could drastically shift the political equilibrium in one of the world’s youngest democracies—not least given that Bhutan sits sandwiched between Asian super-powers India and China. Will large multi-nationals and their employees want to move to a patch of the Himalayan foothills with scant regional connections?

  • Mon-02-2025
Trouble brewing in Tajikistan (November 19, 2024, GIS Reports Online)

Perched high in Central Asia’s Pamir Mountains between Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, China and Afghanistan, the Republic of Tajikistan is a place that few people from outside the region have ever visited and many might not even be able to find on a map. Yet, recent events have highlighted significant geopolitical reasons to pay attention to developments within the country.

  • Mon-02-2025
Why Do Housing Prices in Kuwait Keep Going Up? Unveiling the Drivers Behind the Crisis (October 3, 2024, The London School of Economics and Political Science)

In the early 1970s in Kuwait, a Mercedes S-Class would cost KD 5,000, while a 750 sqm plot in Nuzha was slightly higher at KD 8,000 (so 1.6 Mercedes per land). Today, that same plot would cost the equivalent of more than 22 Mercedes. Housing affordability has become a major concern for many families.

  • Mon-01-2025
The East Asian Miracle Remembered: Tiger Secrets Hidden in Plain Sight (January 15, 2025, Center for Global Development)

Some miracles resist forgetting. They continue to hold out hope for believers. The East Asian Miracle that apparently blessed four economies with a growth bonanza in the last quarter of the twentieth century, endures because a legion of countries believe that supernatural events can be made to recur by studying the oracle bones and conducting the policy liturgy handed down from East Asia.

  • Mon-01-2025
Armenia: Upgrade of MLT political risk classification amid lower financial risk and lower risk of conflict with Azerbaijan (January 23, 2025, Credendo)

Following years of tension and conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia and Azerbaijan are currently negotiating a peace agreement. Strong growth is expected despite ongoing economic slowdown. Moderate public debt and decreased external debt. Moderate liquidity.

  • Mon-01-2025
South Korea's birthrate set to rise for the first time in nine years (January 22, 2025, Reuters)

South Korea's birthrate is set to show a rise in 2024 for the first time in nine years, following a rebound in marriages that were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Asian country has recorded the world's lowest fertility rates, but the number of newborns between January 2024 and November 2024 rose 3% from a year earlier to 220,094, monthly government data

  • Mon-01-2025
Week in Brief: 10 key developments shaping Kazakhstan this week (January 25, 2025, Kazinform International News Agency)

This week in Astana and beyond, Kazinform News Agency presents a roundup of the top headlines that shaped the past seven days in Kazakhstan.

  • Mon-01-2025
Vietnam: Alarm bells ring as birthrate hits record low (January 21, 2025, Deutsche Welle)

Vietnam's birth rate sank to a record low in 2024. This marked the third consecutive year the figure remained below the replacement level of 2.1 — and it's happening against the background of a booming economy. Both the West and China are pouring money into Vietnam, but its plummeting fertility rate might spell trouble for its economic boom.

  • Mon-02-2025
China enhances position as Central Asia’s economic overlord (January 29, 2025, Eurasianet)

Beijing has reinforced its position as the dominant economic player in the region, which sits on China’s western border, recording an almost 5 percent growth in trade turnover in 2024, according to data published by the country’s General Administration of Customs. China has muscled Russia aside as the region’s top trade partner.

  • Mon-02-2025
China trapped in a cycle of deflation (January 27, 2025, GIS Reports Online)

When Xi Jinping became president in March 2013, there was widespread optimism across China. At that time, many Chinese economists held a linear viewpoint, believing that the country’s development would progress continuously. However, today, China finds itself trapped in a deflationary cycle.