Chief Economist, Aletheia Capital

Dr. Jim Walker

Jim Walker is the chief economist at Aletheia Analyst Network Limited, an independent research platform for the Asia Pacific region. Prior to joining Aletheia he was the founder and chief economist at Asianomics Group an economics and strategy research consultancy company formed in late 2007. 

Before establishing Asianomics he was the chief economist at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets. He joined CLSA in late 1991. Over the years Dr Jim achieved numerous ‘best economist’ rankings in the Asiamoney, Institutional Investor and Greenwich surveys of fund managers. In 1995 he wrote about the prospect of Asia being forced off its de facto dollar peg “within the next two-three years”. The Asian Crisis, precipitated by the Thai baht devaluation, began in July 1997.

In recent years he is best known for forecasting the US 2007 downturn and financial sector meltdown in his series of ‘Apocalypse’ reports. He remains deeply sceptical of the prevailing wisdom in central banks’ approach to monetary policy.

Over the years he has also developed an approach to analysing Asian economies based on profit and credit cycles where the importance of investment spending as the driver of economic activity is explained.

Early in his career he worked in his native Scotland as a research fellow at the Fraser of Allander Institute for Research on the Scottish Economy, and then at The Royal Bank of Scotland’s Edinburgh headquarters. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree and a doctorate in economics from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.

Chief Economist

Independent and original Asian investment research

Aletheia Capital

Aletheia Capital (HK) Ltd. (previously known as Asianomics) combines the extensive knowledge of its experienced team with technology and regulatory changes to disrupt Global Markets business in Asia. The firm is completely independent with no conflicts of interest either on Investment Banking advisory or Capital Markets execution.

Macroeconomics

<ul>
<li>We produced a Peregrinations report earlier this week on trade and external balances, subtitle: Turbulence. It was a rundown for each country in the region of the import and export growth rates as well as the latest current account position. In short, it's a very mixed bag across the region and, as we have been arguing for some time, very difficult to interpret given all the price changes that are going on just now.</li>
<li>In other news, we have been arguing that, given normal profit cycles, Chinese profit data should be turning around this year given the poor run of returns in 2023 (negative) and both 2024 and 2025 (flat). Given the normal shakeout in industries, we should start to see a resurgence in profitability. To be fair, it hasn’t happened yet in ROE numbers but the latest data industrial profits data brought year-to-date profit growth to 18.7% YoY, which appears to be a significant turnaround.</li>
<li>India's industrial production for June came in at 7.3%, that was much higher than expectations. India continues to roll along quite nicely. We still believe that increased exposure to the Sensex would be a good equity strategy for international investors at the moment. The country remains the fastest growing economy in Asia at the moment.</li>
</ul>


We produced a Peregrinations report earlier this week on trade and external balances, subtitle: Turbulence. It was a rundown for each country in the region of the import and export growth rates as well as the latest current account position. In short, it's a very mixed bag across the region and, as we have been arguing for some time, very difficult to interpret given all the price changes that are going on just now.
In other news, we have been arguing that, given normal profit cycles, Chinese profit data should be turning around this year given the poor run of returns in 2023 (negative) and both 2024 and 2025 (flat). Given the normal shakeout in industries, we should start to see a resurgence in profitability. To be fair, it hasn’t happened yet in ROE numbers but the latest data industrial profits data brought year-to-date profit growth to 18.7% YoY, which appears to be a significant turnaround.
India's industrial production for June came in at 7.3%, that was much higher than expectations. India continues to roll along quite nicely. We still believe that increased exposure to the Sensex would be a good equity strategy for international investors at the moment. The country remains the fastest growing economy in Asia at the moment.


Walker’s Weekly: Dr. Jim's Summary of Key Global Macro Developments - 31 July 2026