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

South Korean Election: A Win for China, but Late Conservative Resurgence Balances the Outcome

How Will South Korea Change With Moon as Its Next President? (Top 10 Issues)

MOONJAEINNOMICS: This Book's Top 10 Highlights & My Thoughts

REAL-Economics.com

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<p><strong>-China and North Korea's favoured candidate, the left/liberal Moon Jae-in (who does not support the deployment of THAAD unless the DPRK undertakes a sixth nuclear test) retains a 10-percentage point lead in the presidential polls. Rationally, it is best for the PRC/DPRK to stay out of the fray and allow their best outcome to occur on 9 May. Ahn Cheol-soo (effectively the Emmanuel Macron of Korea) will have a chance only if the main conservative candidate fades. A victory for Ahn would be</strong>…</p>

-China and North Korea's favoured candidate, the left/liberal Moon Jae-in (who does not support the deployment of THAAD unless the DPRK undertakes a sixth nuclear test) retains a 10-percentage point lead in the presidential polls. Rationally, it is best for the PRC/DPRK to stay out of the fray and allow their best outcome to occur on 9 May. Ahn Cheol-soo (effectively the Emmanuel Macron of Korea) will have a chance only if the main conservative candidate fades. A victory for Ahn would be…

RoK Electoral Politics, the USS Carl Vinson, THAAD and the Rising Risk of Insanity from the DPRK