The EIU nowcast for the US economy for Q4 2020 further weakened to 0.94% (quarter-on-quarter) as of last week, compared with 1.37% during the week ending 6th November.

On November 15th China, the ten members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia signed the long-awaited Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a multilateral free-trade agreement (FTA).

In The Economist Intelligence Unit’s latest global outlook video, Agathe Demarais, Cailin Birch and Fei Xue discuss our latest forecasts for Japan and the policy priorities of the Biden administration.

Positive trial results for Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine are very welcome, but global vaccination will not be easy.

The Economist Intelligence Unit expects US president-elect, Joe Biden, to deepen US security ties to South-east Asia and re-engage at a high level with regional forums amid ongoing tensions in the South China Sea.

The EIU nowcast for the US economy for Q4 2020 further improved to 1.97% (quarter-on-quarter) as of last week, compared with 0.94% during the week ending 13th November.

Key performance metrics around patient, bed utilisation and elective surgery volume for 200+ top hospitals in Asia-Pacific, tracked by our latest data tracker SurgPRO, have mostly fallen for the June-August period in 2020 compared to the same duration in the previous year.

Data released by the General Administration of Customs on December 7th show that goods exports rose by 21.1% year on year in US dollar terms in November, compared with an 11.4% increase in October. Imports grew by 4.5%, following a 4.7% increase the previous month.

The EIU nowcast for the US economy for Q4 2020 weakened to 1.85% (quarter-on-quarter) as of last week, compared with 1.97% during the week ending 27th November.

The Liberal Party minority government, in its revised climate plan, has proposed to raise the federal carbon tax more than threefold by 2030 and to increase federal spending on environmental programmes by an initial C$15bn (US$12bn).