Why is Indian FDI shying away from South Asia?

September, 2014
Saman Kelegama
There have been promises of greater Indian investment in South Asia for a long time. A report produced by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 2007 argued that India would play a key role in investing in South Asia and this in turn will stimulate intra-regional trade in the region. The report made special reference to the rapidly growing Indian IT industry and identified it as a potential investor in South Asia. The ADB argued that business process outsourcing, knowledge process outsourcing, call centres and other IT related sub-contracting would shift to regional countries as a response to increased costs of doing business in India.

Why is Indian FDI shying away from South Asia?

September, 2014
Saman Kelegama
There have been promises of greater Indian investment in South Asia for a long time. A report produced by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 2007 argued that India would play a key role in investing in South Asia and this in turn will stimulate intra-regional trade in the region. The report made special reference to the rapidly growing Indian IT industry and identified it as a potential investor in South Asia. The ADB argued that business process outsourcing, knowledge process outsourcing, call centres and other IT related sub-contracting would shift to regional countries as a response to increased costs of doing business in India.

Making monetary policy work in Sri Lanka

July, 2014
Dushni Weerakoon
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) announced in February 2014 that the country maintained single-digit inflation for five consecutive years for the first time since independence. For a country that has historically suffered from both high and volatile rates of inflation, this achievement is no mean feat. The scale of this accomplishment becomes clear when comparing the country’s monetary environment to that of 2008, when annual inflation peaked at 22.6 per cent before settling to single-digit levels from February 2009.

Making monetary policy work in Sri Lanka

July, 2014
Dushni Weerakoon
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) announced in February 2014 that the country maintained single-digit inflation for five consecutive years for the first time since independence. For a country that has historically suffered from both high and volatile rates of inflation, this achievement is no mean feat. The scale of this accomplishment becomes clear when comparing the country’s monetary environment to that of 2008, when annual inflation peaked at 22.6 per cent before settling to single-digit levels from February 2009.

Enhancing public debate on inequality in Singapore

June, 2014
Mukul G. Asher & Chang Yee Kwan
The publication of Thomas Piketty’s 2014 book Capital in the 21st Century has brought the issue of income inequality to the fore of public policy debates in many countries. This is remarkable, given the book’s length (696 pages), the intricacy of the historical data series that forms the statistical foundations of the book’s main propositions, and its relatively narrow geographical focus (mainly the US, the UK, and Western Europe). The issues of inequality, social mobility prospects, fairness and adequacy of social protection arrangements have recently risen to prominence in public policy debates in Singapore, and this is likely to continue.

Enhancing public debate on inequality in Singapore

June, 2014
Mukul G. Asher & Chang Yee Kwan
The publication of Thomas Piketty’s 2014 book Capital in the 21st Century has brought the issue of income inequality to the fore of public policy debates in many countries. This is remarkable, given the book’s length (696 pages), the intricacy of the historical data series that forms the statistical foundations of the book’s main propositions, and its relatively narrow geographical focus (mainly the US, the UK, and Western Europe). The issues of inequality, social mobility prospects, fairness and adequacy of social protection arrangements have recently risen to prominence in public policy debates in Singapore, and this is likely to continue.

Deepening India’s export basket

May, 2014
Keya Chaturvedi
As India elects a new government in the summer of 2014, many analysts have vociferously discussed the incumbent government’s domestic economic management. Yet less attention has been paid to India’s external economic engagement. India has many domestic bottlenecks and structural constraints which stymie efforts to increase exports and integrate more deeply with global markets. Over time, this has resulted in a shallow export basket, consisting mostly of raw materials and intermediate goods. There also are growing trade imbalances — particularly with one of India’s key trading partners, China. As talks of a FTA between China and India continue, India needs to acknowledge that increased trade cooperation will do little to boost growth until it addresses domestic structural constraints, trade structure and policy .

Deepening India’s export basket

May, 2014
Keya Chaturvedi
As India elects a new government in the summer of 2014, many analysts have vociferously discussed the incumbent government’s domestic economic management. Yet less attention has been paid to India’s external economic engagement. India has many domestic bottlenecks and structural constraints which stymie efforts to increase exports and integrate more deeply with global markets. Over time, this has resulted in a shallow export basket, consisting mostly of raw materials and intermediate goods. There also are growing trade imbalances — particularly with one of India’s key trading partners, China. As talks of a FTA between China and India continue, India needs to acknowledge that increased trade cooperation will do little to boost growth until it addresses domestic structural constraints, trade structure and policy .

Lifting Asia out of poverty needs to be done equally

April, 2014
Juzhong Zhuang
Developing-Asia’s impressive growth continues but faces a new challenge — inequality is on the rise. Over the last few decades, the region has lifted people out of poverty at an unprecedented rate. But more recent experience contrasts with the ‘growth with equity’ story that characterised the newly industrialised economies’ transformation in the 1960s and 1970s. Treating developing Asia as a single unit, its Gini coefficient of per capita consumption expenditure — a commonly used measure of inequality — worsened from 39 in the early 1990s to 46 in the late 2000s. It worsened from 32 to 43 in China, from 33 to 37 in India, and from 29 to 39 in Indonesia. Inequality widened in 12 of the 28 economies with comparable data — and these 12 countries account for over 80 per cent of developing-Asia’s population.

Lifting Asia out of poverty needs to be done equally

April, 2014
Juzhong Zhuang
Developing-Asia’s impressive growth continues but faces a new challenge — inequality is on the rise. Over the last few decades, the region has lifted people out of poverty at an unprecedented rate. But more recent experience contrasts with the ‘growth with equity’ story that characterised the newly industrialised economies’ transformation in the 1960s and 1970s. Treating developing Asia as a single unit, its Gini coefficient of per capita consumption expenditure — a commonly used measure of inequality — worsened from 39 in the early 1990s to 46 in the late 2000s. It worsened from 32 to 43 in China, from 33 to 37 in India, and from 29 to 39 in Indonesia. Inequality widened in 12 of the 28 economies with comparable data — and these 12 countries account for over 80 per cent of developing-Asia’s population.