Entries from Asian Chemical Connections tagged with 'middle-income trap'

Southeast Asia's Export Dependency

Source: Petroleum Institute of Thailand   By John Richardson THERE is a lot of excitement about the self-sustaining nature of Southeast Asia's (SEA) economy thanks to, for example, nine consecutive quarters of GDP growth of more than 6% in...

China Producer Price Deflation Continues

By John Richardson China's factory-gate prices have fallen for 14 months in a row because of huge overcapacity in many industries, said the Wall Street Journal in this article. "Producer prices - a measure of prices of goods before they...

Malaysia's Economic Challenges

By John Richardson Barisan Nasional (BN) has won Malaysia's general election although Anwar Ibrahim (see picture on the left), leader of the opposition, has so far refused to concede defeat because he claims that there has been widespread election fraud....

Southeast Asia 's Economic Boom

By John Richardson SOUTHEAST (SEA) polyolefins demand grew by 15-20% last year in some of the region's emerging countries, such as Indonesia, according to a source with a major global producer. Confidence is high as overseas money pours into super-hot...

China, Patronage And Innovation

By John Richardson CHINA has to improve innovation if it is to avoid the middle-income trap. Some people assume that success is a given because of China's great achievement of lifting hundreds of millions of people out of absolute poverty...

China's Internet Decision

By John Richardson CHINA'S polyethylene (PE) market sentiment rebounded in mid-December on greater confidence that the country's new leaders meant business on economic reform. And since then, commodity prices in general, including those for iron ore  have rebounded thanks to a...

Social Change And Growth

South Korea and its consumer-driven economy Source of picture:  KeystoneUSA-ZUMA/Rex Features   By John Richardson MEASURING demand growth cannot involve merely assuming that the future will be the same as the past, as this increasingly complex world continues to tell...

Honestly, Nobody Still Has A Clue

By John Richardson JUST as the West was lucky, so was China. The Chinese economy was also buoyed by the Babyboomers, and by its 2001 admission to the World Trade Organisation that enabled it to greatly increase its role...

China's Intellectual Property Challenge

Wen Jiabao - stepping down Source of picture: KeystoneUSA-ZUMA/Rex Features    In the last of our series of posts on China's leadership handover, which begins today as the 18th Party Congress meets, we look at intellectua property rights protection.   By...

China Reformer Sidelined

By John Richardson AN assumption is that economic reformers will win control of China's Politburo after the once-in-a-decade leadership transition is out of the way (China's new set of leaders are set to be announced during the 18th Party Congress,...

Chemicals Demand Shift Will Not Be Smooth

  By John Richardson ADIDAS recently announced that it is to close its only directly-owned sportwear factory in China. Many other similar factories could shut if Beijing sticks to its 12th Five-Year-Plan (2011-2015) promise to move up the industrial value chain. The...

China Politics

In the last of our series of blog posts on some of the major challenges facing China's economy over the next 12-18 months, we look at politics.     By John Richardson THE outcome of the battle over China's economic...