BTC iShares MSCI All Country Asia ex Japan ETF

The Russian economy fell by 0.6% on an annual basis in July—compared to Market expectations of a 1.0% decline and lower than a decline of 0.5% in June.

The US dollar–Japanese yen currency pair has been one of the most volatile developed country currencies in the past six months. The Japanese yen saw heavy appreciation in August.

The IMF cut its global economic growth forecasts, according to the latest IMF World Economic Output Update dated July 19. The cut in forecasts was expected.

Taiwan’s economy rose by 0.7% on an annual basis in 2Q16—compared to a contraction of 0.29% in the previous quarter and slightly above estimated forecasts.

In the short term, Asian benchmarks and ETFs have also performed better than US-focused funds.

The contrasting movement among the global markets was primarily due to caution ahead of the Bank of England’s monetary policy release on July 14.

Investors continue to flock to secure their funds in exchange-traded funds (or ETFs) tracking Asian securities like the VanEck Vectors Russia ETF (RSX).

Asian equities have seen a sharp rally in 2017 due to attractive valuations and upward earnings potential.

Although Asian markets have outperformed most of the other regions this year, their performance over the past few years has remained sluggish overall.

Under Kim Jong-Un, North Korea has adopted a more aggressive stance toward its regional adversaries, fueling unprecedented tension in the region.

Asian nations (AAXJ) are experiencing a continuation of the economic recovery that has been going on for a couple of quarters now.

A higher allocation to Asia could certainly provide diversification benefits to investors while enhancing their risk-adjusted returns.

Total factor productivity measures increases in overall output due to technological advancement without an increase in inputs.

For the last three decades, Asia has posted higher economic growth than any other region of the world.

The sharp rise in global liquidity conditions has been channeled mainly into emerging market (EEM) economies.

The RBA released its minutes. Inflationary pressures were subdued—noted by a sluggish rise in consumer prices in Australia of 1% in 2Q16.

Thailand’s economy rose by 3.5% on an annual basis in 2Q16. The GDP rose at the fastest pace since 1Q13. On a quarterly basis, its GDP grew by 0.8% in 2Q16.

The Malaysian economy grew by 4.0% on an annual basis in 2Q16—in line with estimated forecasts and against 4.2% growth recorded in 1Q16.

China’s trade surplus widened to $52.3 billion in July from $48.1 billion in the previous month. It’s expected to narrow to $47.6 billion.

The inflation rate in Taiwan rose by 1.2% in July on an annual basis—above expectations of 1.1% growth and last month’s rise of 0.91% in consumer prices.

The official manufacturing PMI for China, published by the National Bureau of Statistics of China, came in at 49.9 for July—slightly below June’s reading of 50.

Recently, the trade surplus for Thailand increased as imports fell lower than exports in the Thai economy. THD rose by 0.81% at 1:30 PM EST on July 28.

The Bank of Japan gave its economic outlook after the monetary policy meeting on July 29. The weak data are due to the slowdown in emerging economies.

Inflation levels in Australia rose by 1.0% in 2Q16—slightly below estimated forecasts of a 1.1% rise and softer than the previous quarter’s rise of 1.3%.

Singapore’s industrial production fell on an annual basis by 0.3% in June—compared to a rise of 0.8% in the previous month and expectations of a 0.2% fall.

The inflation rate in Singapore fell by 0.7% on an annual basis in June after a 1.6% drop in May and estimated forecasts of a contraction of 1.1%.

The inflation rate in Malaysia increased by 1.6% on an annual basis in June—compared to 2.0% in the previous month and below forecasts of 1.6%.

The Australian dollar could gain more if the RBA doesn’t provide a strong hint of cutting interest rates. The central bank is concerned about economic growth.

On a quarterly basis, the advance GDP for Singapore rose by 0.8%, marginally below estimated forecasts of 0.9%.

The Central Bank of Malaysia unexpectedly reduced the benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 3% on July 13—bringing the rates to two-year low levels.

Marvell, a supplier of silicon solutions for storage, cloud infrastructure, IoT connectivity, and multimedia, has been making news for all the wrong reasons.

Key Asian indexes (AAXJ) were trading higher on July 4. This week, the major data release on the Asian front will be Australian monetary policy.

The central bank of Colombia increased interest rates on June 22, 2016, by 25 basis points to 7.5%, which was in line with expectations. This was its tenth consecutive hike in benchmark rates.

The Indian economy has certainly seen a change since the new government took over. India now uses what is known as GVA (gross value added) to calculate economic output.