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

Indonesia: Domestic Demand Provides a Spur at Last

Rate & Tariff Hikes Will Slightly Reduce the Large CA Deficit; but Slumping Net FDI the Real Problem

The Week that Was in ASEAN@Smartkarma - Politics, Takeovers, and Beauty Products

REAL-Economics.com

Macroeconomics

The tight race for Jakarta governor remains too close to call, so political uncertainty will be prolonged. While Jokowi's coalition will be weakened if the secularist ticket fails to win the runoff for Jakarta governorship, the very fact of a tight contest is a testament to the resilience of Indonesia's democracy.Today's Jakarta gubernatorial election is increasingly seen as a proxy fight among the three current titans of Indonesian politics -- incumbent President Joko Widodo, his predecessor…

The tight race for Jakarta governor remains too close to call, so political uncertainty will be prolonged. While Jokowi's coalition will be weakened if the secularist ticket fails to win the runoff for Jakarta governorship, the very fact of a tight contest is a testament to the resilience of Indonesia's democracy.Today's Jakarta gubernatorial election is increasingly seen as a proxy fight among the three current titans of Indonesian politics -- incumbent President Joko Widodo, his predecessor…

Indonesia: Democracy a Long Term Stabilizer, Despite Episodic Ructions