In 2015, the Chinese government officially announced in a governmental white paper the creation of the Digital Silk Road (DSR), also known as Information Silk Road, as a subset of the Belt Road Initiative (BRI) (NDRC 2015). According to Beijing’s officials, the DSR’s objective would be to create a China-centric digital infrastructure. This would serve...Read More

During the Cold-War years, Europe and India engaged with the Soviet Union at very different levels. On many occasions they found themselves supporting the opposite side. Western Europe was part of the American led western alliance. India, however, had very close strategic and economic ties with the USSR, which were institutionalised through the 1971 Indo-Soviet...Read More

It is becoming clear that China’s ambitious Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) linking Asia and Africa with Europe through a network of various transportation corridors could fundamentally reshape the geo-economics and geopolitics of the whole Eurasian region and beyond. As the initiative has huge implications for the EU and India; the paper has captured evolving...Read More

China’s massive, continent spanning OBOR project is attracting increasing support from Asian governments, including many that have long had poor relations with China.  This development has to be understood in terms of the regions’ enormous infrastructure deficit, the lack of alternative funding, and the changing reality of Asian geopolitics and economic relations.   China has become the principal...Read More

The ongoing impact of the financial crisis upon the global economy and the concomitant shift towards more regionally-oriented patterns of trade have greatly increased the cogency of the case for more effective policy cooperation at a European level. But that case had already been well-established by the rise of the new emerging powers over the...Read More

The collapse of the Shanghai stock market at the end of August (a downward correction of 37% since 12th June) has brought back to the fore the inherent weaknesses in China’s current economic development. The country’s decreasing growth to 7% over the first six months of the year (with an annual forecast of 6.7% for...Read More

Since Prime Minister Modi took office in May 2014, India has embarked on a number of measures to encourage the development of the country’s economy and the streamlining of its indigenous defence capabilities. Probably the most prominent reform has been the raising of a foreign direct investment cap from 26% to 49% since August 2014,...Read More

This paper utilises long term data series on short-term Japanese interest rates to identify historical changes in interest rate behaviour. Japanese trajectories are then compared to those of key foreign short-term rates and their relationship examined using cointegration analysis to assess the impact of international financial integration. The findings suggest that lasting changes began in...Read More

On 22 June 2013 the Bank of England concluded a Rmb200bn. (US$32.6bn.) currency swap agreement with the Peoples Bank of China in order ‘to promote bilateral trade between the two countries and to support domestic financial stability should market conditions warrant’ (Bank of England 2013; Noble 2013). This is the first such agreement with a...Read More

This is the first of a series of planned reports on microcredit in China. In this paper we offer our view of what is preventing microcredit from developing in China and offer a list of recommendations for Chinese policy makers that wish to promote this sector. Our preliminary analysis suggests that microcredit is not developing...Read More