Our Insights

The global oil industry is pursuing alternative trade routes, and we can watch the results using high-frequency shipping data in near-real time.

When Friedrich Merz announced a dramatic hike in defense spending a year ago, many observers hoped the new Chancellor would stimulate Germany’s stagnant manufacturing base.

The China-Mexico relationship touches on the most politically sensitive segments of North American manufacturing – especially the automotive sector.

The imported energy supply shock is dominating the headlines, but Japan also has uniquely homegrown inflation pressures.

From the first Gulf War in 1990 to the current crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, the quickest impacts from geopolitical shocks often show up in gasoline prices and then feed into inflation.

Our ASEAN Premium database unlocks more early signals for the world's most dynamic economies. We examined the formation of new businesses in Singapore – a leading indicator for industrial production, as a rush of new entrants often reflects optimism in a given sector.

As the Persian Gulf crisis threatens a 2022-style reignition of global inflation, we're adding new high-frequency indices to track food prices. Our latest index zeroes in on Britain, which was already suffering from stickier inflation than most of its former EU peers.

The halt to Gulf crude-oil shipments is starting to show up at the pump – especially in the US.

This American exceptionalism reflects factors that historically make gasoline cheap on a global basis: relatively low taxes and transport costs, given abundant local supplies.

The oil supply shock is rippling through Southeast Asia. Countries dependent on imported energy are most at risk; the Philippines is taking the hardest hit. The archipelago historically sees some of the strongest "pass-through" effects.

As the closure of the Strait of Hormuz puts trade connections in focus, we've visualized how China's ties to Persian Gulf oil exporters have deepened.

Traditionally, Japan was Thailand's biggest foreign investor. Automakers such as Toyota and electronics companies like Panasonic were notable for having long-standing supply-chain linkages between their Thai and Japanese facilities.

China released upbeat economic figures that beat expectations, driven by an uptick in investment and domestic consumption. But this is not a simple story of broad-based recovery.