Chart of the Week │ July 8, 2026
Learning Improves Across Indonesia, But Regional Disparities Are Deepening
Indonesia has made significant progress in improving student learning outcomes since the introduction of the National Assessment (Asesmen Nasional) in 2021.
Featured Research
Book Launch | India’s Skill Landscape: A Sub-national Competitiveness Analysis
The past decade has been defined by the rapid diffusion of advanced technologies reshaping production systems and global value chains. As economies become more technology-intensive and integrated into these value chains, competitive advantage rests less on factor endowments and more…
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Beyond Connectivity: How Investment and Skills Shape the Gains from Trade and Infrastructure
Why do some regions and workers benefit more from trade and infrastructure expansion than others? ACI’s research finds that the answer lies not only in market access or transport connectivity, but also in how firms invest and how workers upgrade…
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How Do Governments Earn Business Trust? Measuring Institutional Trustworthiness Across Economies
As governments compete to attract investment amid economic fragmentation, trust is increasingly viewed as a strategic asset. Yet business trust is often discussed as a matter of perception: whether firms say they trust government and public institutions. This raises a…
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Book Launch | ASEAN Resilience in a Protectionist World: A Competitiveness Analysis
ASEAN Resilience in a Protectionist World: A Competitiveness Analysis provides insight into the ASEAN perspective amid a global shift towards rising protectionism, growing trade uncertainty, technological disruptions from the rise of AI, and climate-consciousness. These developments have prompted the reconfiguration…
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Forecasting Urban Affordability: New Insights into the World’s Cost of Living in 2025
As the world has entered a period of heightened uncertainty, businesses, governments and households increasingly need forward-looking information to plan policies and consumption decisions. A recent study by researchers at the Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI) develops a forecasting framework to…
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Impact of China’s Offshoring on ASEAN Supply Chains
Chinese FDI into ASEAN is associated with higher imports of machinery, capital goods and upstream inputs from China. At ACI’s webinar, Dr Jingting Liu examined whether this reflects only tariff circumvention and trade rerouting, or whether production is also moving…
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Assessing the Impact of Singapore’s Digital Economy Agreements
Singapore is a pioneer in developing Digital Economy Agreements (DEAs), with one of the most extensive networks of such agreements worldwide. As cross-border trade becomes more digitised, governments face a growing challenge: how to govern areas such as paperless trade,…
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Book Launch | 2025 Annual Indices for Expatriates and Ordinary Residents on Cost of Living, Wages and Purchasing Power for World’s Major Cities
ACI has constructed the annual indices and rankings of the cost of living, wages and purchasing power for expatriates and ordinary residents across the world’s major cities since 2005. This edition reports the results for 2025, continuing to provide consistent…
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Population Decline Is Not the End of Growth
If low birth rates and aging populations become the norm, do they inevitably spell disaster for nations? Charles I. Jones, an economist known for his work on long-run economic growth, has explored a future in which sustained population decline leaves…
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ACI Perspectives 