Chief Economist & Political Strategist, CrossASEAN Research

Prasenjit K. Basu

PK Basu has 34 years experience covering Asia's economies and markets (equities, fixed income and currencies), including 20 years covering the global economy. He was Chief Economist (SE Asia & India) at Credit Suisse First Boston for 5 years, and Chief Asia (x-Jpn) Economist at Daiwa Securities for a similar period. Among other roles, he was global head of research at Maybank Kim Eng, Malaysia equity research head and chief ASEAN economist at Macquarie, Chief Economist at ICICI Securities, ASEAN economist at UBS and the first chief economist at Khazanah Nasional (where he was co-head of research, and led all agri-business initiatives). PK Basu started his career in the Asia Service of WEFA (Wharton Econometrics) in Philadelphia in 1990, rising to be Director of their Asia Service in June 1994. 
PK's book, "Asia Reborn: A continent rises from the ravages of Colonialism and War to a New Dynamism" won the Tata Literature First Book Award (non-fiction) for 2018. It is the first single chronicle of the modern economic and political history of the whole of Asia (from Iraq and Turkey to Korea and Japan, and everything in between), told from an Asian perspective.

Chief Economist & Political Strategist

Catalonia Crisis – Heightened Post-Election Risks

HSBC Holdings Plc – Likely Getting a Big Hickey From President Trump

Merkel's Triumph Masks the Longer-Term Challenges from the Empowered Fringes

REAL-Economics.com

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

Spain & germany / Thematic (Sector/Industry)

-Spain's post-Franco settlement based on devolution (or a "State of Autonomies") has been strained since the GFC, with Catalonia demanding either independence or a renegotiation of its fiscal arrangements with the national government. The Catalans believe they are paying upto 5% of their GDP more into the national fiscal pie than they are receiving back from Spain's government. -With Rajoy of the PP (legatee of Franco's Nationalists from the Civil War of 80 years ago) refusing to negotiate with…

-Spain's post-Franco settlement based on devolution (or a "State of Autonomies") has been strained since the GFC, with Catalonia demanding either independence or a renegotiation of its fiscal arrangements with the national government. The Catalans believe they are paying upto 5% of their GDP more into the national fiscal pie than they are receiving back from Spain's government. -With Rajoy of the PP (legatee of Franco's Nationalists from the Civil War of 80 years ago) refusing to negotiate with…

Catalonia's Attempted Secession Reflects the EU's Continuing Existential Crisis