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

Inflation Caused by Monetary Surge; Risk of Stagflation in 2022 Amid Fiscal Tightening

The Big Risks For 2022 .... Large Debts, Less Liquidity and Growing Indexation?

3 Months of MoM Inflation Oblige Stealth Tightening; Overvalued Equities to Fall

Biden Stimulus+ Will Be Inflationary; Policy Stability Is Enabling a More Leftward Tilt

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

The US consumer price index (both headline and core) rose at an annualized pace of 10.8% MoM in June 2021. For 2Q (April-June) 2021, the core CPI increased at an annualized pace of 10%, while the headline CPI increased 9.2% (annualized) in 2Q 2021. We had predicted precisely this outcome on 12 June 2020 (13 months ago) in <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/labour-market-slack-remains-but-fomc-will-need-to-tighten-by-mid-2021" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:40185" rel="noopener">Labour Market Slack Remains but FOMC Will Need to Tighten by Mid-2021</a> because inflation would rise markedly. While the FOMC has insisted that inflation is transitory, it actually began a stealth tightening in May 2021, engineering a month-on-month decline in the monetary base that month. CPI inflation is currently being under-estimated, because the Housing component is properly updated only half-yearly after a complete national survey of rentals and owners' equivalent rents (OER, the implicit rent that would be paid by homeowners were they to rent rather than own their home). The Case-Shiller 20-city housing price index was up 14.9% YoY in April 2021 (the latest data, released at end-June 2021), and this is bound to enter the CPI and PCE price index in 2H 2021. (Housing is considered an investment, not consumption, so rents and OER are the consumption portion; housing prices are not directly relevant to CPI, the cost of using housing -- rents -- are). Having risen just 2.6% YoY in June 2021, Housing is likely to rise much more sharply in 2H 2021, pushing up headline and core CPI (and also PCE, but less because of its lower weight). The labour market retains some sectoral slack in the hospitality and tourism-related sectors, but appropriately skilled labour is increasingly in short supply elsewhere in the economy.  Despite a high base from June 2020 (5% YoY), average weekly earnings (wages) were up 3.6% YoY in June 2021. Wage inflation will likely exceed 4% YoY in 3Q 2021, contributing additionally to inflationary pressure. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard (a non-voting member of the FOMC this year) has already called for tapering to begin (as "substantial progress" has already been made on the Fed's inflation and unemployment goals). While Fed Chair Powell insisted in his House testimony this week that tapering remains "a ways off", he told the Senate on the following day, "...of course we're not comfortable with" the fact that the reopening of the economy had "driven inflation well above 2%". The 27-28 July FOMC meeting will likely see more intense discussion of tapering, and we think formal (not merely stealth) tapering will be begin no later than the September meeting. We remain cautious about equities, although the strong recovery makes cyclicals and consumer cyclicals attractive.

The US consumer price index (both headline and core) rose at an annualized pace of 10.8% MoM in June 2021. For 2Q (April-June) 2021, the core CPI increased at an annualized pace of 10%, while the headline CPI increased 9.2% (annualized) in 2Q 2021. We had predicted precisely this outcome on 12 June 2020 (13 months ago) in Labour Market Slack Remains but FOMC Will Need to Tighten by Mid-2021 because inflation would rise markedly. While the FOMC has insisted that inflation is transitory, it actually began a stealth tightening in May 2021, engineering a month-on-month decline in the monetary base that month. CPI inflation is currently being under-estimated, because the Housing component is properly updated only half-yearly after a complete national survey of rentals and owners' equivalent rents (OER, the implicit rent that would be paid by homeowners were they to rent rather than own their home). The Case-Shiller 20-city housing price index was up 14.9% YoY in April 2021 (the latest data, released at end-June 2021), and this is bound to enter the CPI and PCE price index in 2H 2021. (Housing is considered an investment, not consumption, so rents and OER are the consumption portion; housing prices are not directly relevant to CPI, the cost of using housing -- rents -- are). Having risen just 2.6% YoY in June 2021, Housing is likely to rise much more sharply in 2H 2021, pushing up headline and core CPI (and also PCE, but less because of its lower weight). The labour market retains some sectoral slack in the hospitality and tourism-related sectors, but appropriately skilled labour is increasingly in short supply elsewhere in the economy.  Despite a high base from June 2020 (5% YoY), average weekly earnings (wages) were up 3.6% YoY in June 2021. Wage inflation will likely exceed 4% YoY in 3Q 2021, contributing additionally to inflationary pressure. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard (a non-voting member of the FOMC this year) has already called for tapering to begin (as "substantial progress" has already been made on the Fed's inflation and unemployment goals). While Fed Chair Powell insisted in his House testimony this week that tapering remains "a ways off", he told the Senate on the following day, "...of course we're not comfortable with" the fact that the reopening of the economy had "driven inflation well above 2%". The 27-28 July FOMC meeting will likely see more intense discussion of tapering, and we think formal (not merely stealth) tapering will be begin no later than the September meeting. We remain cautious about equities, although the strong recovery makes cyclicals and consumer cyclicals attractive. 

Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU INDEX)

Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index (VIX INDEX)

Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index

US Wages Are Resurgent, Even if Markets Haven't Noticed; Keep Your Eye on Inflation