Asia Competitiveness Institute, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore
Despite the global economic decline that was experienced in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, China saw positive overall economic growth. However, it is seen that there are uneven rates of recovery between sub-national economies, especially pertaining to the secondary and tertiary sectors. Like most countries, China too had resorted to pandemic control policy measures […]
Read MoreSummary Since the November 2015 launch of the automatic route for foreign direct investments under the ‘Make in India’ initiative, greenfield FDI flows to India increased substantially. FDI through the automatic route does not require approval from the Government of India. The eased FDI norms enabled India to become the 9th largest recipient of FDI […]
Read MoreSummary As souring relations between the United States and China continue to take center stage and grab all the geopolitical headlines, attention on ASEAN has increased. The region has become subject to a geopolitical tug of war, and despite its protestations, are being increasingly pressured to choose between the two superpowers. This situation makes research […]
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Despite being hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, China’s economy expanded by 2.3 percent in 2020. The government effectively controlled the spread of the coronavirus through strict lockdowns and other social distancing measures. Fewer face-to-face activities also led to increased online activities and, therefore, a burgeoning digital economy. For the successes it achieved despite a health […]
Read MoreSummary This week’s chart shows the number of active accounts on mobile applications (such as education, office, entertainment, gaming, etc.) in six selected provinces in China from Q4 2019 to Q4 2020. Highlights Beijing took the lead in this indicator across time and demonstrated an increasing gap with the provinces behind it. The top position […]
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As the world evolves into an increasingly interconnected community, multinational corporations (MNCs) and regional trade agreements (RTAs) play an integral role in shaping the changing economic landscape. In 2014, MNCs accounted for 55% of global exports and 49% of imports, with a large part consisting of intermediate goods trade within MNC networks. According to WTO’s Regional Trade […]
Read MoreSummary: China’s 14th Five-Year Plan outlined innovation as the driver of modernisation. Under the National Big Data Strategy, data has become an important factor of production. Additionally, the investment in R&D has led to tremendous development in China’s digital economy. This week’s chart uses data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China and the China Academy of Information […]
Read MoreSummary Led by several giants such as Taobao, Jingdong and Pinduoduo, e-commerce in China has been growing rapidly in the past few years. In 2020, although the COVID-19 pandemic significantly lowered the online sales growth rate, the total e-commerce market shares continued to grow and reached its highest point of 27% in Q2 2020. This week’s chart utilizes data from the National Bureau of Statistics, China to show the changes in online sales from 2018 to 2020. […]
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Debt levels in China are believed to be sustainable at a national level, but a closer look at provincial level data, flags up potential causes for concern. Prior to the Global Financial Crisis, there was a consensus that China was fiscally sustainable with both foreign and domestic debt taken into consideration. This is because the […]
Read MoreSummary The COVID-19 pandemic has likely heightened worries amongst the Chinese population regarding the risk of unexpected high medical expenses. This is seen from the growth in health insurance premium during the impact period. This week’s chart compares the year-on-year provincial average insurance premium growth rates for accident, health and property insurances between 2019 and 2020. The COVID-19 impact has given rise to varying patterns of premium income growth across insurance types. […]
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