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Chemicals and the Economy

5 Risks to China’s growth story

China’s economic growth has become more and more unbalanced over the past 10 years, as we discussed in chapter 6 of Boom, Gloom and the New Normal. Its domestic consumption is now only around a third of GDP, compared to 50% a decade ago. Instead, the leadership has focused on achieving growth via exports and […]

Mahathir says Europe “must face up to new reality”

Mahathir Mohamad is one of the Grand Old Men of the Asian political establishment. He was Malaysian premier from 1981 – 2003, and led its rapid modernisation and economic growth. Over the period, which included the Asian financial crisis, the former colony’s economy grew four-fold in real terms, and it is now the 37th largest […]

Malaysia launches world’s first 4G service

A decade ago, the blog was one of the pioneers of eBusiness as ChemConnect’s VP Europe/Middle East. And it has retained its interest in the power of the internet to radically change business models. So it was very pleased to be invited by its old friend Colin Skellett, chairman of YTL Utilities (UK), to the […]

Asian exports collapse – Japan’s fall 46%

Japan’s exports fell 46% in January, after a 35% fall in December. Exports to the US fell 53%, and to China fell 45%. This makes it likely that Japan’s economy will shrink further, after the 3.3% decline in 2008. It could soon become the first G-7 economy to fall into depression – defined as a […]

Crisis “more serious than the 1930’s”

Last August, the blog noted that politicians were beginning to wake up to the scale of the current crisis. There are still many politicians (and businessmen) who still hope we are facing just a ‘normal recession’. But last week, IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn told a Malaysian audience that “advanced economies are already in a depression”. […]

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