Economy

Exports surged in October to 64.9% y-o-y from 33.5% in September, rising to US$1.7bn. This marks the first time in FY2010/11 that exports have actually increased in absolute terms.... 2010-11-26

As expected, large-scale manufacturing went through a severe downturn in August due to the floods in July, as year-on-year growth in Pakistan's large-scale manufacturing index went... 2010-11-26

Inflation is continuing to rise significantly, with the Colombo CPI hitting an eight-month high in October with a 6.6% y-o-y increase. The main driver continues to be food, which increased... 2010-11-26

After embarking on a cumulative 150bps of rate hikes in 2010 (accurate up to November), we believe that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is likely to hold the benchmark repo rate at... 2010-11-25

The reformed general sales tax (RGST) proposed by the current administration is unlikely to gain legislative approval in the near term due to strong resistance from members of parliament... 2010-11-18

August's uptick in inflation marked a stop to its downward trend which began in February with CPI hitting 7.5% y-o-y. Inflation has been rapidly increasing on a month-on-month basis... 2010-10-29

After suffering one of the worst floods in recorded history, Pakistan's road to recovery is showing positive signs, with the country's trade deficit narrowing to US$0.6bn in September... 2010-10-29

Sri Lanka has continued its rapid build-up of foreign reserves, recording a gross amount of US$5.4bn in June. The government has to keep a sufficient amount of foreign reserves to continue... 2010-10-29

India's wholesale price inflation (WPI) rose by a still elevated 8.6% y-o-y in September as food prices remained persistently high. For our part, we believe that better monsoon rains... 2010-10-28

BMI View: In line with our view, Pakistan's failure to tackle the structural flaws of its public finances saw the government miss its IMF-prescribed nominal deficit target of 5.1% of... 2010-10-15