Tapping into mutual comparative advantages: Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone

The Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (SEZ) was officially launched on January 7, 2025. Expansion plans are taking shape in past few months, from tech giants like Microsoft and Nvidia to battery makers. Given heightened global uncertainties and trade fragmentation, this is positive news for Singapore and Malaysia, especially for Johor although there are some tail risks which need to be considered.For Singapore, Johor - being 26 times bigger than Singapore -offers a solution to the lack of space for a few key sectors, such as data centers and, potentially also access to energy. This should ...

RBA プレビュー：5 月会合ではタカ派姿勢を維持し、今後の決定はデータ次第としつつも、利下げ実施の見通し

RBA Monitor: Delivering hawkish cut in May emphasizing data dependency for future decisions

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is expected to deliver a hawkish rate cut at the May monetary policy meeting. The good news is that the underlying CPI inflation measured by the trimmed mean softened to +2.9% YoY in Q1-25 from +3.3% YoY in Q4-24, within the 2-3% target range.Although these results are likely to justify the RBA to lower the cash rate by 25 bps at the next meeting, we expect the RBA to remain cautious in signaling further rate cuts because of several factors. Firstly, the services inflation has remained sticky after slowing to +3.7% YoY from +4.3% YoY during the same period. ...