In my previous commentaries on the peculiar world of equity markets in 2020, I offered a bullish outlook for how events would unfold as the year progressed (with all due caveats for the market’s overall unpredictability). In the event, things have broadly played out as I anticipated, owing to a remarkable monetary – and fiscal-policy expansion and the timely arrival of vaccines that appear capable of ending this dreadful pandemic. What can we expect in 2021?

Britain and Vietnam on Friday finalised a free trade agreement (FTA), the second deal London has reached in Southeast Asia in as many days while deadlock continues over post-Brexit European Union (EU) arrangements.The deal with Vietnam comes into force 1 January, 2021 and will be Britain's third, following Thursday's pact with Singapore and October's first post-Brexit trade deal with Japan.Vietnam stands to benefit from tariff savings of £114 million (US$150.6 million) on its e

The world is not yet sufficiently alarmed by how much the COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged the global economy. We track the daily numbers of infections and casualties. But we are oblivious to the job losses and lives upended, especially in the developing world, where the pandemic has barely elicited a public-health response.The pandemic’s impact on major economies has so far been four times worse than that of the 2008 global financial crisis.

Australia’s China problem – official contacts frozen and many of our exports under siege – is now gaining attention far beyond our shores.

Last month, 15 Asia-Pacific countries signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The occasion marked what might be the most significant economic achievement since the COVID-19 crisis began. And yet the RCEP – or, indeed, Asia – cannot save the ailing multilateral trading system alone.

United States (US) and Chinese companies dominated the global arms market in 2019, while the Middle East made its first appearance among the 25 biggest weapons manufacturers, a report by the SIPRI research institute said Monday.The US arms industry accounted for 61 percent of sales by the world's "Top 25" manufacturers last year, ahead of China's 15.7 percent, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.Total sales by the "Top 25" rose by 8.

Investors pushed Asian markets higher Friday on continued optimism over vaccines and on signs of progress on a new United States (US) stimulus, though surging infections and deaths highlighted the painful, immediate reality of the coronavirus crisis.While the consensus is that the world can begin to get back to normal – and the economy recover –from next year as people are inoculated, observers warn lockdowns and other containment measures in place now are crippling businesses and jobs.The US

In future history books, 2020 will be known as the year of the great COVID-19 pandemic, and rightly so. But it will also be remembered as the year when United States (US) President Donald Trump’s vile tenure was brought to an end.

Apart from 74 million voters in the United States (US), who still approves of President Donald Trump? Most Europeans are overjoyed to see the back of him.

Still irate and bitter one month after his election defeat to Joe Biden, Donald Trump is openly musing about a second run at the United States (US) presidency in 2024.Refusing to accept defeat, Trump's lawyers and supporters continued Wednesday to file lawsuits and even call for extraordinary intervention, such as martial law, to force a new vote.And Trump released an extraordinary 46-minute video in which he again claimed that he was robbed of victory in a "rigged" election.&a