Total debt in the People’s Republic of China has increased significantly in recent years, mostly on account of nonfinancial corporate debt. Earning and the financial performance of corporate firms have weakened, and so has the asset quality of the financial sector. This paper assesses the...

We reflect state-owned enterprises' (SOE) leverage within the standard debt sustainability assessment framework. Based on company data and the interest coverage ratio as a measure of debt at risk, aggregate baseline projections and fan charts gauge SOE debt as a contingent liability to the...

This paper derives a Frankel-Romer instrument from a global trade matrix of 157 countries over the period 1990-2007, and deploys it to assess the relationship between international trade, domestic market potential, and income for the case of developing Asia, compared to the world average. The...

The paper develops a method to map global networks of production sharing and processing trade. Relying on highly detailed bilateral trade data across a matrix of 75 countries, a network index gauges countries interdependence according to the extent of trade in parts and components for further...

The paper tabulates Myanmar's merchandise trade as reported by its partner countries, thereby circumventing the data constraints stemming from Myanmar's patchy trade records. It then estimates Myanmar's export potential, based on the bilateral export patterns observed for six other countries in...

The Asian Development Outlook (ADO) provides growth and inflation forecasts for more than 40 economies in the region. This paper assesses the accuracy of those forecasts against actual outcomes for the years from 2008 to 2011. The World Economic Outlook (WEO) forecasts by the International...

There is no escaping Japan's competition in the world markets for goods, particularly in the automotive and electronics industries. Countries exporting to these markets are bound to feel the competitive pressure from a marked fall in the value of the yen. However, while some exporters will be...

This is done in relation to the benchmark of World Economic Outlook (WEO) projections by the International Monetary Fund. Amid much heterogeneity across countries and years, it has been found that ADO and WEO projections overlap quite closely. Both are inaccurate, especially during crisis years,...

Since the early 1990s, India has embarked on economic reforms that have progressively opened up the country to international trade. This paper analyzes the effects of reform on India's trading structure from 1990 to 2006. It computes comparative advantage indicators on the basis of disaggregated...

This paper calculates the decline in costs involving merchandise trade between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and India during the period 1980-2008. Drawing from the recent literature, a comprehensive measure of trade costs is derived from a theory-founded gravity model of international...