JULY 2013: The Month in Charts

The state of the Asian economies — especially heavyweights China and Japan — was on investors’ minds in July.

Click here to view the Gallery.

In Q2 of 2013, China’s annual GDP growth slowed to 7.5 percent, the ninth quarter in the last 10 that expansion has weakened.

However, foreign direct investment (FDI) in China for the first half of 2013 totaled $62.0 billion, up 4.9 percent from the same period in 2012 – a sign that despite slower growth in the world’s second-largest economy, investors still have some confidence.

Relations between China and Japan have been on the frosty side since September when a territorial row over tiny islands in the East China Sea flared. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called for a leaders’ summit or a foreign ministers’ meeting between his country and China as soon as possible, but got a cool reaction from Beijing.

Asia’s eyes are also on gold, with China and India as the two largest buyers. With the rupee heading to record lows, India has been trying to stem imports with regulations, but is now facing a smuggling problem.

Investors are on a quest for yield, which they are not finding as readily in Asia. At the same time, anticipating a tapering off of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s bond-buying program, investors are seeing some dollar repatriation.

 
Receive stories like this to your inbox as they are published. Subscribe here and follow us @Alpha_Now on Twitter. If you are looking to access Thomson Reuters data or analytics, register for a free trial.