The Financial Times has kindly printed my letter, commenting on their editorial about Premier Modi’s economic policies in India. Sir, Your editorial “India’s Modi should act more decisively in 2015” (December 24) has too limited a view of the policies required to generate growth in India’s economy. With gross domestic product per capita of about […]
Chemicals and the Economy
Global auto sales reach ‘top of the mountain’ moment
The best view is always from the top of the mountain. And that seems where we are today in global auto markets. They are on track for another record year. And even better news is that sales have risen in each of the 5 major markets for the first time since 2007. The bad news is that […]
Indian Oil join campaign to build toilets in India
The blog is delighted to be able to congratulate Indian Oil (IOC) on becoming the first company to commit to building toilets in India. In response to Premier Modi’s appeal, the chairman of India’s bggest refiner, B. Ashok, last week personally began to build toilets at a school near its refinery in Mathura in Uttar Pradesh state. IOC have […]
Global stock markets still depend on low-cost money for support
The blog’s 6-monthly review of global stock markets highlights the narrow nature of the advance since September 2008, when the blog first began analysing developments. It shows their performance since the pre-Crisis peak for each market, and the performance of the US 30-year Treasury bond. Remarkably, only the US, India, Germany and the UK stock markets […]
Auto sales on roller-coaster ride in Japan, Russia, Brazil, India
Car sales in Japan, Russia, Brazil and India currently account for just under 1 in 5 of global sales. Their market share peaked at 21% in 2008, but is today back at 2005’s level of 17%. As the chart shows, it has been a roller-coaster ride for all of them: Japan’s 4.7m sales were 10% of the global total […]
Modi highlights toilets in India’s Independence Day speech
The Indian Prime Minister’s address on Independence Day is the major event of the political year, equal to the US President’s ‘State of the Union’ speech. It was particularly important this year as India has a new reforming prime minister in Narendra Modi. It it is thus hugely significant that top of his agenda was opening up the country […]
India’s WTO veto marks end of global trade deals
The Cycle of Deflation has taken another lurch forward. The reason was India’s decision to veto last year’s Bali deal to streamline customs procedures. Almost certainly, this will prove the dying effort of the World Trade Organisation, which sponsored the proposal. The blog is particularly sad at this outcome. It has always believed that free […]
Markets slip as fears grow Fed’s cheap money may end soon
Western financial markets are getting nervous that the US Federal Reserve will cut off their supply of cheap money. They went through the same panic in 2011. Now they again have to wait to see what happens. The chart of the new IeC Boom/Gloom Index above highlights the parallels: Markets were strong through April 2011, with the […]
India’s $10bn polymer opportunity in toilet provision
There is never a shortage of growth opportunities. But too often companies choose not to access them. Hopefully that won’t happen with the opportunity to supply millions of tonnes of polymer to meet India’s desperate need for toilets. As the blog wrote recently, 600 million Indians currently defecate in fields – as shown above in the photo – […]
Toilet provision key to Modi’s success in India
As the blog discussed last week, it seems that a new type of leader is starting to emerge in some of the world’s major countries. Premier Narendra Modi in India, like President Xi Jinping in China, seems to be focused on achieving change – and not just on staying in power for its own sake. His […]
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