Chief Economist & Political Strategist, CrossASEAN Research

Prasenjit K. Basu

PK Basu has 35 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 and Asia sector strategist 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

RBI Rate Hike May Not Be A One & Done Deal; Stance Neutral but Tone Hawkish

India: RBI Fears Realised as Retail Inflation Continued to Accelerate in May

Hint of Stagflation Highlights RBI Policy Error, but Exports Are an Island of Strength

The Investment-Led Rebound Accelerates to 7.7% Real GDP Growth

The Investment-Led Recovery Has a Broader Base, and Corporate Earnings Are Gaining Too

Investment-Led Rebound to 7.2% Real GDP Growth

REAL-Economics.com

Macroeconomics

The main impact of today's policy rate hike will be to bolster the rupee, and dampen the impact of fuel prices on headline inflation in June-July 2018. With the government's net market borrowing down 43% YoY in April-May 2018, and crude oil likely past its peak for the year, the usual factors that push inflation higher in India are absent. The next move in the policy rate is likely to be down rather than up! The acceleration in real GDP growth (to 7.7% YoY in January-March 2018, from 7% in the…

The main impact of today's policy rate hike will be to bolster the rupee, and dampen the impact of fuel prices on headline inflation in June-July 2018. With the government's net market borrowing down 43% YoY in April-May 2018, and crude oil likely past its peak for the year, the usual factors that push inflation higher in India are absent. The next move in the policy rate is likely to be down rather than up! The acceleration in real GDP growth (to 7.7% YoY in January-March 2018, from 7% in the…

RBI Raises Rates, but Will Likely Look Foolish when Inflation Moderates