Central bankers have long been categorized as hawks, who prefer higher borrowing costs to keep a lid on inflation, or doves, who favor lower rates to juice growth. In normal times, these depictions help investors and observers know roughly what to expect policy-wise. But these are far from normal…

When Donald Trump urged US manufacturers to move their supply chains out of China, many hustled to set up shop in Vietnam. Now the administration has labeled Vietnam a currency manipulator, and products made there could face tariffs all the same. It’s a rude reminder to companies that the effects…

Australia's recession is technically over, but far from buried. Deep scars in economics and politics won't be easily overcome, no matter how many campfire stories leaders tell about the three-decade expansion that ended with the pandemic. They’ll have to struggle mightily to achieve half as good a…

Barges piled with sand traverse the sea lanes around Singapore, almost as ubiquitous as the semi trucks that ply America’s interstate highways. Aboard a small motor boat one recent afternoon, I catch sight of an imposing green wall rising from the shoreline protecting a huge sand stockpile. As one…

Please look beyond the White House for just a few minutes, Asia. The place that matters most for you right now is the Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Building, a few blocks away on Constitution Ave. Don’t let the obscurity of the address fool you. From inside these walls a massive exercise in…

The Reserve Bank of Australia just placed a bet on a long and arduous climb back from the coronavirus pandemic. The rest of the world should take note. Rather than greeting a return to growth by pulling back on easy money or laying the ground for doing so, the central bank is loosening some more…

The troubles keep piling up for India, feted not long ago as a would-be commercial superpower. Economic data show the country is in far worse shape than previously thought, while it has overtaken Mexico to become the world’s third-largest tally of coronavirus cases. It will take the South Asian…

By signaling a more relaxed view of inflation and foreshadowing US interest rates will stay lower for longer, the Federal Reserve has given Asia’s economic chiefs a green light to rev commerce well into the coming decade. This offers the region a shot at healing some of the deepest scars of Covid…

Less than a week after chalking up a milestone for the most consecutive days in office, Shinzo Abe is bowing out as prime minister of Japan due to health problems. His eight-year stint began as Japan was reckoning with its place in a new world order: China had become Asia’s main commercial power…

Many of the governments once lauded for their textbook Covid-19 responses, replete with strict lockdowns, sophisticated contact-tracing apps and clearly articulated policies, got tripped up by something in the end. In Singapore, it was an outbreak in foreign worker dorms. In South Korea, it was the…