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

REAL-Economics.com

Macroeconomics

VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (VOF LN)

Vietnam continues to provide stable positive returns, and we recommend staying overweight in the VND, given the widening trade surplus (which should ensure a current account surplus of 6% of GDP in 2016), and a strongly positive real interest rate.While the rest of East Asia has continued to suffer from declining exports, Vietnam's exports grew 5.5% YoY in January-August 2016, strongly outpacing import growth of 0.2% YoY for the period, generating a year-to-date trade surplus of US$2.045bn.  The US and Europe remain bigger destinations for Vietnam's exports than China (including Hong Kong), so Vietnam is less vulnerable to the weakness in China's imports than the rest of East Asia is (and will benefit less if China's imports repeat their August '16 expansion). Vietnam's inflation rate has remained low and stable, while its policy rate has not been cut in 3 years -- thus ensuring that the real policy rate is among the highest in the world. And the relocation of low- and mid-skilled manufacturing from southern China to Vietnam continues apace, generating the basis for continued medium-term strength for Vietnam's exports and GDP growth.

Vietnam continues to provide stable positive returns, and we recommend staying overweight in the VND, given the widening trade surplus (which should ensure a current account surplus of 6% of GDP in 2016), and a strongly positive real interest rate.While the rest of East Asia has continued to suffer from declining exports, Vietnam's exports grew 5.5% YoY in January-August 2016, strongly outpacing import growth of 0.2% YoY for the period, generating a year-to-date trade surplus of US$2.045bn.  The US and Europe remain bigger destinations for Vietnam's exports than China (including Hong Kong), so Vietnam is less vulnerable to the weakness in China's imports than the rest of East Asia is (and will benefit less if China's imports repeat their August '16 expansion). Vietnam's inflation rate has remained low and stable, while its policy rate has not been cut in 3 years -- thus ensuring that the real policy rate is among the highest in the world. And the relocation of low- and mid-skilled manufacturing from southern China to Vietnam continues apace, generating the basis for continued medium-term strength for Vietnam's exports and GDP growth.  

Vietnam Enterprise Investments (VIETENI KY)

VND: High-Yield Safe Haven Currency with Robust Exports and a CA Surplus