Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
Author: Shekhar Shah, NCAER, Delhi
We live in troubled times. The Dow has taken several multi-hundred point hits as fears rise and fall on Europe’s debt crisis.
The rising debt crisis has left many seriously doubting the United States’ ability to provide global economic leadership. And the news about the global economy’s slowing down is not good. Read more…
Author: Ishrat Husain, Institute of Business Administration, Karachi
The expansion of the G7 to the G20, thereby incorporating Asia, is a welcome step.
Economic power relations have changed considerably in the past decade or so and it was thus only natural that the global governance architecture should begin to reflect this new reality. Read more…
Authors: Chris Manning, ANU, and Raden M Purnagunawan, Padjadjaran University
Although there are some uncertainties, the Indonesian economy is well placed for what will now almost certainly be a sharp downturn in the world economy.
Foreign reserves were at a record high at just under US$120 billion at the end of the second quarter, inflation was down to below 5 per cent, investment up significantly, and growth steady at 6.5 per cent year on year. Certainly, macroeconomic policymakers are not ignoring the potential impact of another global recession; but Indonesia seems relatively unaffected by the immediate- to medium-term impacts of the US’s much slower-than-expected recovery in August and the ongoing debt crisis in Europe. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, East Asia Forum
Indonesia is undoubtedly one of the most under-estimated countries in Asia.
After three decades of authoritarian rule under President Suharto, it has transformed into a robust democracy. It re-emerged from the Asian financial crisis as undisputed leader within ASEAN. Read more…
Author: Sri Mulyani Indrawati, World Bank
The global economic recovery remains fragile and uncertain, as risks posed by high energy and food prices, unemployment, and uncertainty over sovereign debt in Europe and the US continue to cloud the horizon.
As key members of the G20, both Indonesia and Australia understand the role of this grouping, and multilateral cooperation generally, in addressing such challenges. Read more…
Author: Ronald McKinnon, Stanford University
In reforming the international monetary system, exchange rates usually get primary attention front and center — such as in numerous meetings of the Group of 20. Indeed, at the G20 meeting in November 2010, President Obama attacked China for not appreciating its currency.
But China’s monetary policy has been oriented toward keeping the renminbi-dollar rate stable since 1994, which served China well as a nominal anchor for its domestic price level and to smooth exchange relationships with its smaller neighbours. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, EAF
In East Asia, as elsewhere in the world, the risks that we continue to face in recovery from the global financial crisis, economically and politically, are a consequence not only of failure in national governance but also in the architecture of international governance, including regional architecture.
Failures that frustrated a coherent East Asian and international response to the big problems of the day (including payments imbalances, financial market reform, trade and exchange rate issues) in their global context. Read more…
Author: Maria Wihardja, CSIS
The world is biting its fingernails in anticipation of developments in the global economy and geopolitical landscape.
The Doha Round is on life support, and the OPEC talks on 8 June to increase the world’s oil supply have broken down. Read more…
Author: Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, PIIE
As the uneven global economic recovery continues, with the emerging economies growing at roughly three times the pace of advanced economies, comprehensive reform of the principal institutions through which global economic governance is enacted becomes ever more urgent.
With emerging economies already accounting for about half of the global economy and the vast majority of current and future global economic growth, securing an adequate voice for this traditionally underrepresented group in global economic governance must be a priority. Read more…
Author: Amitav Acharya, Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada and American University
It is bad enough that Canada is absent in Asia. But what’s worse is that nobody in Asia seems to care.
In a recent op-ed, Joseph Caron (Canada’s former ambassador to China and Japan and former High Commissioner to India) and David Emerson (former Canadian Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister) wrote: ‘Canada remains on the fringes of [Asia’s] remarkable transformation, whether diplomatic engagement, trade, foreign investment or educational or cultural exchanges. We risk being left behind.’
Author: William Overholt, Harvard University
It is doubtful that Washington politicians understand just how important the IMF leadership decision is. This decision is crucial because of a history that Americans have largely forgotten.
During the Asian Crisis of 1997-8, the IMF made two decisions that continue to threaten the world’s ability to have a coherent financial crisis management policy based on a single institution.
Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, EAF
There is increasing anxiety about global food security as food prices have spiked in many countries and the inflation of food prices appears as one of the sparks that ignited political protest in North Africa and throughout the Middle East.
The IMF and World Bank chiefs warned that high food prices and joblessness remain dangerous barriers to the world’s economic and social stability despite global macroeconomic gains on the way to recovery from the global financial crisis. Read more…
Author: Cyn-Young Park, ADB
The global financial crisis has prompted a wide range of policy responses and long-overdue reform initiatives, implemented by an unprecedented degree of intergovernmental policy coordination to build a collective response — not just between large, advanced economies but with strong participation from emerging market economies, too.
The world economy has turned a corner, but the challenges it faces remain daunting. Read more…
Author: Maria Monica Wihardja, CSIS, Indonesia
This year’s BRIC Summit, to be held in mid-April in China, will mark the entry of South Africa into membership of the group.
The economies of BRICS (now with the addition of ‘S’ for South Africa) will also prepare for the G20 Summit to be held later this year. BRICS, for which the combined economy is predicted to overtake the US by 2018, is not only an emerging economic power but also an increasingly influential political power; and China, acting as a global regime maker instead of a regime taker, is leading the way. Read more…
Author: Barry Carin, CIGI
The G20 is again in the news following the February 2011 Finance Ministers’ meeting with media coverage dominated by news that leaders agreed on a ‘list of indicators to identify and reduce trade imbalances.’
This development comes under France’s G20 presidency, which inherits an unfinished agenda from past G20 summits. Read more…