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, 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

China's Growth Constrained by Crisis of Industrial & RE Over-Capacity

China Economics: Refusal to Cut Rates Suggests Painful Tradeoffs

China Economics: Don't Celebrate the Good PMIs Just Yet

China's Twin Crises: Overlending to Frontier Markets & Domestic Property Sector

Trump's Trade War Revisited: Tariffs Did Reduce China's Bilateral Surplus with US

China: Capital Flight Limits Easier Money Amid Spreading Crisis in Property Markets

CrossASEAN Research

At CrossASEAN Research we strive to produce unbiased and differentiated on the ground insights on companies across South East Asia. Our Research is produced for the most part after face to face meetings and conversations with company management to dig deep into the long term vision and strategy of the companies we cover. We seek to deliver investable and actionable themes on sectors and markets across SE Asia, often in collaboration with other Insight Providers across the region, pooling the vast experience of the analysts within the Smartkarma Ecosystem. We also offer bespoke work and tailor made trips for our clients. 

Insights across South East Asia

Macroeconomics

<ul>
<li>Persistent overcapacity in industry and real-estate has resulted in a spreading crisis among  shadow-banks, as many of them begin defaulting on investment products (pseudo-deposits). Moral hazard rules out government rescues. </li>
<li>As global supply chains abandon China-centricity, exports continue losing global market share. But with domestic demand weak, the annualized trade surplus is US$900bn, much of it leaking as capital flight. </li>
<li>FAI is decelerating (adjusting to industrial capacity). Shrinking working age population requires productivity to be main driver of growth. Japanified decade ahead likely, but with RGDP growth settling at 3%. </li>
</ul>


Persistent overcapacity in industry and real-estate has resulted in a spreading crisis among  shadow-banks, as many of them begin defaulting on investment products (pseudo-deposits). Moral hazard rules out government rescues. 
As global supply chains abandon China-centricity, exports continue losing global market share. But with domestic demand weak, the annualized trade surplus is US$900bn, much of it leaking as capital flight. 
FAI is decelerating (adjusting to industrial capacity). Shrinking working age population requires productivity to be main driver of growth. Japanified decade ahead likely, but with RGDP growth settling at 3%. 


Global X MSCI China Financials ETF (CHIX US)

China's Slow-Burning Financial Crisis Worsens Amid Persistent Overcapacity