Business

Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford win the 2026 Economics Nobel. A guide to their research on expectations, spending and stabilisation policy.

The IMF and World Bank annual meetings opened in Bangkok on Monday, the first in Thailand since 1991. Our day-by-day table shows what is coming, from the World Economic Outlook on Tuesday to Georgieva’s press conference and the Bangkok Blueprint on fraud.

Americans Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford won the 2026 economics Nobel “for microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilisation”. We explain their work, and why it matters to Asian central banks such as the RBI, which raised rates last week.

On his first China trip since handing over as Apple CEO, Tim Cook told Guangdong’s governor that Apple is willing to expand in the province. Our table compares China’s and India’s shares of iPhone production, which have shifted by nine points in a year.

Ships have been struck in or near the Strait of Hormuz almost every day in October, with 12 attacks in one week, the most since the war began. Yet Middle East crude exports are back near pre-war levels. Our tables track the attacks, the shipping numbers and the cost for Asia.

The IMF and World Bank annual meetings open in Bangkok on October 12. The World Bank has raised its 2026 growth forecast for developing East Asia and the Pacific to 4.5%, driven by AI-related exports. Our table compares the June and October forecasts for each economy.

Two days after reports that China had rejected EU calls to curb hybrid exports, the two sides announced a “shared understanding” in Beijing that Brussels says could cut Chinese hybrid exports to Europe by more than half. What was agreed, what is still unknown and what comes next.

The GST Council recommended removing arrest powers from GST law, raising the prosecution threshold from ₹1 crore to ₹5 crore and cutting the general penalty to ₹10,000. Our tables compare the old and proposed rules and the refund timelines.

A day after the RBI raised the repo rate to 5.50%, PNB, Bank of Baroda, Indian Bank, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank and Tamilnad Mercantile Bank raised their repo-linked lending rates by 0.25%. Our tables list the new rates and the EMI impact.

South Korea has unveiled the K-GX strategy, about 1 quadrillion won for renewables, electric vehicles and cleaner industry by 2035. The targets, the two different funding breakdowns reported, and why energy imports matter.

China has refused an EU request to voluntarily limit hybrid car exports to Europe, the Financial Times reported, while Bloomberg says the European Commission is preparing time-limited safeguard measures. What is on the table, the numbers behind the dispute, and what to watch.

The RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee raised the repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.50% and shifted its stance to “calibrated tightening”. We list the RBI’s forecasts, the repo rate’s path since 2023 and our EMI calculations for home loans.