China crushes India in BRICS university ranking

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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China has dominated a ranking of the top BRICS universities, with 40 mainland institutions making it into the top 100, compared with just 16 for economic rival India.

Tsinghua University, referred to as “China’s MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology],”grabbed first place, according to a ranking by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), which is based on eight key indicators including faculty-to-student ratio, the number of staff members holding a PhD, and reputation among employers.

The Beijing-based institution produces more state leaders and senior officials than any other mainland university, according to local media, including the current and former presidents Xi Jinping and Hu Jintao.

Read more: Chinese students are harder workers: Lang Lang

 “It is not surprising that China leads the pack, given the size of its economy and population and the massive resources it has been putting into higher education. This BRICS ranking points to a sharp contrast between Indian and Chinese achievement in higher education,” said Zoya Zaitseva, project director for QS University Rankings.

No Indian university featured in the top 10, with the highest ranked university – Indian Institute of Technology – taking the 13th spot.

“Despite being only marginally smaller in population, India has only 16 institutions listed here, less than half China’s haul. While India has world-class institutions in science and technology, its comprehensive universities are not as strong in an international context,” Zaitseva added.

Read more: The top 10 universities for billionaire alumni

Interestingly, while Tsinghua is ranked at the top of the BRIC table, it placed 48th in QS’ latest world university rankings – a sign that China and its emerging market peers have a way to go in terms in global academia.

Peking University (China), Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russia), Fudan University (China), Nanjing University (China) claimed second through fifth place, in ascending order.

Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China), University of Science and Technology of China (China), Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil), Zhejiang University (China) and Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Brazil) ranked sixth to tenth place.

Read more: In China, any US degree just won’t do

Overall, Russian, Brazilian and South African universities claimed 19, 17 and 8 spots, respectively in the top 100.

“Russia performs well in this ranking and demonstrates great progress as a part of its ambition to have five universities in the global top 100 by 2020. There are ambitious plans to expand the number of Brazilian students studying abroad; over time, the result could be a more internationally-integrated Brazilian university system,” said Ben Sowter, head of research at QS.

“South Africa’s university system is fast-changing, with new institutions being launched and old ones reformed; its strengths include strong international connections as well as productive and well-regarded researchers. Its universities are consistently good at attracting international students and staff, in line perhaps with its mission of African leadership in higher education,” Sowter added.

—By CNBC’s  Ansuya Harjani; Follow her on Twitter: @Ansuya_H

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Gold may rally to $1,300 if Fed delays taper

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Gold prices may close the year near USD 1,300 lifted by a “relief rally” if the US Federal Reserve votes this week to keep stimulus measures intact, CNBC’s latest survey of bullion market sentiment shows.

The precious metal, one of the biggest casualties of Fed ‘taper’ fears, has lost more than a quarter of its value this year – its first annual decline in 13 years as investors increasingly rotate into equities and away from safe-haven bonds and bullion.

“If the Fed defers a taper, we should see gold bounce from oversold levels which could help it test USD 1,300 again,” said Mark O’Byrne, Founder and Executive Director of Dublin-based bullion dealer GoldCore. “We do not believe the Fed will ‘taper’ as the US economy remains very fragile and any reduction on bond purchases could lead to turbulence in financial markets, a rise in bond yields and affect the wider economy.”

(Read more: Gold in ‘flux’ until taper timeline gets clearer)

CNBC’s latest survey of market sentiment showed 52 percent of respondents (14 out of 27) expect prices to decline this week, 26 percent (7 out of 27) say prices will trade at around current levels while 22 percent (6 out of 27) expect price gains.

However, some believe that the Fed may reduce the monthly pace of bond purchases by between USD 5 billion and USD 10 billion at its policy-setting this week – Chairman Ben Bernanke’s last before his term expires at the end of January 2014 – as recent data suggest that the economy is gaining momentum.

If the Fed does act this week and reduces its massive bond buying program marginally, “gold will likely fall to test strong support at USD 1,200 again,” GoldCore’s O’Byrne said.

(Read more: Gold is just the tip of the ‘Taper Tantrum’)

However, a Fed taper this week remains a minority view though one that has started taking on more prominence as U.S. economic data improves and the risk of a U.S. budget showdown fades after last week’s tentative bipartisan agreement.

 “A delay in the Fed’s QE taper may start a relief rally in gold but limited due to the eventuality of a taper in the near term,” said Edmund Moy, Chief Strategist at Morgan Gold and a former director of the U.S. Mint.

A Reuters poll of more than 60 economists taken last week showed thirty-two economists expect the U.S. central bank to act in March. Twenty-two said it would scale back its monthly bond-buying program in January and only 12 economists expect an announcement next week.

“I am not convinced that the Fed will take the training wheels off of this economy right now,” said gold bull Scott Carter, the chief executive officer of Los Angeles-based Lear Capital, who expects the Fed to delay the taper. “If we look behind the numbers there are still some serious problems with this economy. This keeps gold very much in play… I look for gold to recover some of its recent losses.”

‘Unwinding’

The ‘no taper’ scenario may offer gold only a temporary fillip, strategists said, as persistently sluggish Asian physical demand, continued investor selling of exchange-traded products and low inflation will mean any rebound swiftly finds sellers.

UBS strategists Dominic Schnider and Giovanni Staunovo said they expected “some unwinding” of bearish futures bets held by short-term investors. Those bets sharply increased in recent weeks – more than doubling since early November – and now look over-stretched.

(Read more: Goldman predicts steep losses for gold in 2014)

Hedge funds and money managers raised short positions, or bets that prices will fall, in US gold futures and options close to a 7-1/2 year high, data by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed on Dec. 6.

Though a “deferral of the taper starting date” by the Fed may help generate some short-covering, UBS cautioned that it won’t be enough to keep prices in an “upward” trajectory.

That’s because outflows from exchange-traded funds such as the gold-backed SPDR Gold Trust “remain a drag with no inflation pressure around the corner and less needs to ensure against tail risk events in the global economy,” UBS said.

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Is a ‘panic taper’ the real risk to markets?

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Markets have been obsessed with the timing of the dreaded ‘taper’ for most of 2013, but according to Wells Capital’s Jim Paulsen, the real focus shouldn’t be on timing, but on whether the Fed will conduct a controlled taper or a ‘panic taper.’

All eyes are on the Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Wednesday and an increasing number of analysts are expecting them to act this week. But Paulsen, who is chief investment strategist of the USD 350 billion investment firm, told CNBC that the market’s obsession with timing was misguided.

“I think tapering will start on Wednesday…. [But] I don’t think [tapering] is as big an event as we make it out to be, whether they do it now, or in January, or in March, I think the markets well anticipate there is going to tapering here pretty soon,” Paulsen told CNBC.

 (Read more: Why the Fed won’t taper in December: Goldman Sachs)

“The real issue is not when they will start to taper, it’s whether the taper be voluntary by the Fed and controlled on their timetable, or whether it be accelerated and forced upon the Fed as the year moves along and the economic data becomes too strong or inflation raises its head,” he said.

According to Paulsen one of the bigger risks for U.S. central bankers would be if money velocity – which is the rate at which money is exchanged from one transaction to another – speeds up more quickly than expected, forcing the Fed to accelerate the process of tapering.

 “If velocity rises, the Fed won’t be able to drain quantitative easing reserves fast enough to calm anxieties of potential overheated/inflationary consequences from the past few years QE program,” he said.

“Typically, Fed policy shifts gears only under panic conditions and this is my best guess as to how Fed policy will most likely be reversed in 2014,” he added.

The Fed has reiterated several times that it will only start cutting back its USD 85 billion a month asset purchase program once it was confident enough that the economy could withstand it. It set thresholds including an unemployment rate at 6.5 percent and has also said inflation would need to increase to 2.5 percent. Currently the unemployment rate sits at 7 percent and inflation remains well below target.

(Read more: Gold is just the tip of the ‘Taper Tantrum’)

But Paulsen said the Fed might be forced to accelerate the taper if inflation fear, as opposed to actual inflation, starts to take hold.

“It’s not critical that we have a real inflation problem. It’s just a matter of whether we have an inflation fear and I can see the ingredients of that. That to me is the bigger event that could occur sometime in 2014,” he added.

 Triggers for ‘inflation fear,’ according to Paulsen, include the falling unemployment rate, a new Fed chairman who is widely perceived to be dovish and rising industrial commodity prices, for example.

“If wage inflation were to tick up a little we just could have a panic about it,” he added.

Paulsen added that the size of the taper, another debate which has dominated market discussions in recent weeks, would likely be on the smaller side.

(Read more: Fed’s dreaded ‘taper’ may not hurt after all)

Analysts expect the Fed to taper by an amount ranging from USD 25 billion to USD 5 billion.

“I think if they do do it, it’s just going to be a baby step. They’ll do it just to put in motion before Yellen takes the helm and to mark the end of Bernanke’s helm,” he added.

The chief investment strategist also told CNBC he expected the S&P 500 to continue to run higher next year towards the 2,000 level as optimism on the US economy improves.

However, he said it would see a 10 percent correction once panic sets in over whether the Fed can reverse policy fast enough to combat a pick up in money velocity.

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Why the Fed won’t taper in December: Goldman Sachs

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Federal Reserve faces a tough decision at its meeting this week as an improving economy builds the case for the winding down of monetary stimulus, but Goldman Sachs says the central bank is likely to hold off from tapering its USD 85 billion monthly bond-buying program until next year.

“The case for tapering on the basis of the data since October is mixed at best. The strongest argument in favor is the improvement in the trend rate of payroll growth to the 200,000 level,” Goldman Sachs economists wrote in a note late Friday. “However, we expect that Fed officials will also put considerable weight on inflation, which has fallen further in recent months.”

The US economy added a better-than-expected 203,000 jobs in November, and the unemployment rate dropped to a five-year low of 7 percent.

However, the Fed’s preferred personal consumption expenditures (PCE) inflation measure is near historical low levels, and below the central bank’s 2 percent target. Headline PCE inflation eased to 0.74 percent year-on-year in October, from 0.95 percent in the previous month.

“At current spot and projected inflation rates, a tightening move would be quite unusual by historical standards,” Goldman Sachs analysts added, noting that their central forecast is for the Fed to begin tapering in March, starting with a USD 10 billion reduction in the pace of Treasury purchases.

Read more: Gold is just the tip of the ‘Taper Tantrum’

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will hold its final policy meeting of the year on December 17-18. The meeting will also be Ben Bernanke`s second-to-last meeting at the helm of the central bank.

Anticipation is running high as the recent economic data roughly meet the Fed’s “substantial improvement in the outlook for the labor market” criterion for tapering the pace of asset purchases, say analysts.

However, Goldman economists says the second reason the central bank will refrain from tapering, is that Fed officials will likely want to offset the first taper with a strengthening of its forward guidance, but probably have yet to agree on the future course of its policies.

Read more: Fed’s dreaded ‘taper’ may not hurt after all

“With the unemployment rate now only 50 basis points from the threshold for keeping the funds rate near zero, modifying the forward guidance has become a more pressing priority,” they said. The Fed has said that interest rates would remain near zero until unemployment fell to at least 6.5 percent.

“But the October minutes and recent commentary from Fed officials suggests little consensus on how to modify the forward guidance,” they added.

The final argument against a December taper is that it would come as a hawkish surprise to markets – a signal Fed officials would not want to send.

“December remains a minority view…it could spark a further tightening of financial conditions. With mortgage rates and the 10-year yield up 30 basis points since the October meeting, this risk is probably unwelcome,” economists at the bank said.

Read more: Dollar bulls bet onmini-taper this week

According to a recent survey of 66 economists by Thompson Reuters, 32 expected the central bank to act in March, while 22 said it would scale back its bond-buying program in January. Only 12 economists anticipated action this week.

-By CNBC`s Ansuya Harjani; Follow her on Twitter:@Ansuya_H

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Another reason why Australians are lucky…

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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On average, Australians enjoy the highest inheritance payouts worldwide at roughly half a million dollars per person, HSBC has found, but on the flip side they are also getting complacent over saving for retirement.

According to HSBC’s global Future of Retirement report, Australians pass on an average inheritance of 561,636 Australian dollars (USD 501,919) to their heirs, which is four times higher than the global average of USD 148,205.

Some 69 percent of Australians, the second highest ranking of the 15 countries analyzed, were planning to leave an inheritance.

But Graham Heunis, head of retail banking and wealth management at HSBC in Australia, said the country’s hefty inheritance levels were discouraging the younger generation from worrying over their retirement.

Half of working Australians told HSBC their future inheritance would partially finance their own retirement, while 14 percent would rely solely on it.

(Read more: Australia to be ‘odd one out’ in 2014: Goldman Sachs)

“This latest report shows that this complacency [over savings] may partly stem from Australians banking on their inheritance to fund their retirement,” said Heunis.

“But this perception overlooks the fact that inheritance is often split between family members or may be eroded by children needing to pay their parents` debts such as mortgages, medical or aged care needs.”

Inheritance levels have soared in recent decades due to the strength of the Australian economy and the absence of inheritance tax, according to HSBC.

“Over the past decade Australian household wealth has grown 7.6 percent per year making us one of the richest nations per capita globally, allowing retirees to provide their children a significant financial legacy,” said Heunis.

(Read more: A Wealthy Nation That Can’t Afford to Retire)

“However, with no inheritance tax in Australia, it’s no surprise the value and proportion of inheritance among Australian retirees is exponentially higher than the rest of the world,” he added.

The report contrasted Australia with other affluent western nations like the U.K. and the U.S., where inheritance and estate tax may cost heirs upwards of 40 percent of an inheritance.

In these countries, retirees are inclined to give financial gifts throughout their lives to pay for their children’s major life events like education, mortgage or marriage rather than a lump sum endowment, said the report.

(Read more: Australia’s cheese war – the battle for Warrnambool)

“We know from previous research that Australians are complacent when it comes to retirement planning with Australians anticipating a 10-year shortfall in their retirement savings and nearly 60 percent acknowledging they are inadequately preparing or not prepared at all for retirement,” said Heunis.

“Working-age Australians need to continue preparing and saving to ensure their own financial security in retirement, and to treat any inheritance as a bonus,” he added.

Other countries with high levels of inheritance included Singapore, where 70 percent of those surveyed said they were planning on leaving a hefty stash of cash behind for their offspring, and the average amount was 466,099 Singapore dollars ($370,966). Singapore citizens are also not taxed on their inheritance.

India and Malaysia had higher percentages of people planning on giving inheritance, at 86 percent and 78 percent, respectively, but the average amount was distinctly lower, at USD 47,775 and USD 38,814, respectively.

The report interviewed 16,000 people in 15 countries, including 1,000 Australians, and examined all aspects of retirement including the transition period, income and spending, on top of legacy planning.

– By CNBC`s Katie Holliday: Follow her on Twitter @hollidaykatie

Copyright 2011 cnbc.com

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Male or female bosses? The majority prefers…

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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If American employees taking a new job were given a choice, they would prefer to work for a male over a female, a survey showed.

Thirty-five percent of respondents said they preferred a male boss, compared with 23 percent who preferred a female boss, according to a Gallup poll of 2,059 adults across the US published on Monday. The remainder said their boss`s gender makes no difference.

“Both men and women prefer a male boss. (But) women are more likely than men to have a preference, with higher proportions expressing preferences for each gender of boss,” Gallup said.

(Read more: Sometimes, the boss really is a psycho )

Sixty-three percent of women expressed a preference for their boss` gender, compared with 52 percent of males.

While there continues to be a wide gap in preferences between male and female bosses, the proportion of Americans who favor a female boss has increased by 18 percentage points over the past six decades, while there has been a 31-percentage-point decline in those who would prefer a male boss.

The gender of employees` current boss appears to affect preferences, the survey indicated.

Preference for female bosses is higher among those who currently work for a woman; the same goes for those who currently work for a man.

Of those surveyed, 54 percent have a male boss, while 30 percent have a female boss; the remainder do not have a boss.

(Read more: Nearly half of global employees unhappy in jobs: Survey )

Interestingly, age is also key factor behind preferences, with younger employees (aged 18-34) more likely to prefer a male boss, than older employees (aged 35-54).

Political partisanship is also a driver of attitudes toward the gender of one`s boss. Democrats essentially broke even in their preferences, while Republicans and independents opted for a male boss, the survey showed.

-By CNBC`s Ansuya Harjani; Follow her on Twitter: @Ansuya_H

 Copyright 2011 cnbc.com

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

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China flash HSBC PMI slows to 3-month low

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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China’s manufacturing activity slowed to a three-month low in December, a survey from HSBC showed Monday.

The HSBC flash purchasing managers’ index (PMI) fell to 50.5 for the month, compared to 50.8 in November. Growth in new order and new export orders increased at a faster rate, while employment decreased at a faster rate.

Still, the figure has remained above the 50 mark, which demarcates expansion from contraction, for five months now.

“I think it’s still broadly optimistic. I think firms are still mildly on the expansionary side,” Alaistair Chan, economist at Moody’s Analytics, told CNBC.

“If you look at the official numbers for instance, I think both domestic and export-oriented firms are still seeing rising orders and rising production so through until the end of the year, I think they are in a fairly sweet spot. I don’t see much pressure coming from the demand side so I think firms will be quite happy heading into the holiday season,” he added.

The Australia dollar, which is highly sensitive to Chinese data because of its dependence on the mainland in exports, slipped 0.3 percent to inch closer to a new three-and-a-half month low against the greenback.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite extended losses, trading within sight of a new two-week low.

Hongbin Qu, chief China economist and co-head of Asian economic research at HSBC, said December’s flash reading stands above the average for the third quarter.

This implies that the recovery in the manufacturing sector remains in tact, Hongbin said, adding that he expects the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth to stabilize at 7.8 percent in the fourth quarter.

The survey covered a shortened period from December 5 to 12, given the upcoming holiday season. The final reading will be released on January 2.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

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Fed’s dreaded ‘taper’ may not hurt after all

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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For all the hang-wringing on Wall Street about the Federal Reserve’s expected “taper,” you’d think the central bank was considering a ban on helicopter flights to the Hamptons.

Take a deep breath. For most of the rest of us, the Fed’s “tapering” of its massive money flows into the US economy could actually spell good news.

The “tapering” you may have heard about refers to a gradual easing up on the central bank’s response to the financial collapse of 2008. Beginning in November that year, the Fed began buying up hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of Treasury bonds—along with dodgy mortgage debt—in exchange for cash that it conjured out of thin air.

Unlike you and me, the Fed can take a pile of debt, swap it for cash, and then hang onto that debt until it reverses the process later, which takes cash back out of the economy. The idea is to fine-tune how much cash is out there: More money makes it cheaper (interest rates go down) less money makes it more expansive (rates go up.)

It’s been doing this—routinely—for decades. But the scope of this buyback—close to $4 trillion and counting—was anything but routine. Now, more than four years after the Great Recession ended, the Fed wants to get back to a more routine interest rate policy.

(Read more: Will the Grim Taper be a body blow to the wealthy?)

hat’s a long time for an “emergency” policy. Why has it kept the money machine going for so long?

Unlike past rebounds that saw the economy snap back like a rubber band, the recovery from the Great Recession has been very different. This time, the rubber band snapped completely during the financial collapse of 2008.

None of the periodic banking and market calamities since the Great Depression has done anything like the 2008 damage to the global financial system. Even today, credit is still hard to get for many small businesses and potential home buyers, two major drivers of economic growth.

That’s another reason the Fed wants to wrap up its epic money-making policy: It may no longer be working. Despite the trillions it’s pushed into the system, much of it hasn’t reached the broader economy.

So where did all that money go? It had to go somewhere, right?

Much of it went to fill the giant crater left in the banking system’s books after the industry’s wildly reckless spree of bad mortgage lending. Today, U.S. banks’ balance sheets are in much better shape, and they’re sitting on big piles of reserves. (In Europe, where the central bank took a much more conventional approach to the crisis, banks are in much worse shape. So is the European economy.)

(Read more: Afraid of the taper? Here’s how you can beat it)

Some of the cash has helped push global stock prices higher but not directly: The Fed bought bonds, not stocks. This year’s 25 percent market rally has been fueled by the record low interest rates the Fed has engineered by soaking up so much debt.

Those low interest rates on relatively safe assets like bonds forced investors to look for higher returns in riskier places like the stock market. Now, if the Fed reverses course and interest rates start to rise again, a lot of the cash flowing into the stock market will likely find a happy home in the bond market. That could turn this year’s stock market rally into a next year’s market rout. Which is why Wall Street has so dreaded “The Taper.”

Who else loses if interest rates rise?

Home buyers—and sellers—could also lose. Earlier this year, after a brief mention by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke that The Taper was probably coming in 2014, mortgage rates shot up by a full percentage point in a month. They’re still under 5 percent for most borrowers, but if they go much higher, the slow but steady recovery in the housing market could get a lot slower.

(Read more: Borrowers struggle to pay off home equity loans)

Higher rates aren’t good for business investment either. Small business owners, who generally get a loan from a banker to buy new equipment or open up a new office, would have to pay more on those loans. Bigger businesses would have to pay higher interest rates on the corporate bonds they sell top investors to raise cash.

Many of the biggest U.S. corporations, though, are already sitting on large piles of cash they raised when money was so cheap. Still, while they may be able to grow their business with their own money, their profits would still be under pressure if higher rates put a crimp in their customers’ spending plans.

So why would the Fed cut back on all this money if it puts the recovery at risk?

The job of the Federal Reserve has always been to take away the punch bowl when it felt like the party was in full swing. But since 2008, the Fed has replaced the punch in the bowl with grain alcohol. There’s little evidence this party is getting out of hand—yet—but Fed officials are eager to get back to serving more conventional refreshments.

The main worry is that the $4 trillion pile of newly created cash will feed another bubble—whether in the stock or housing markets—that leads to yet another collapse. Fed officials have said they don’t see evidence of that. But they’ve also conceded that financial bubbles are very difficult to spot until its too late to deflate them safely.

(Read more: Gold is just the tip of the ‘Taper Tantrum’)

 Bernanke and his colleagues have also made clear that “tapering” means just that: The flow of cash won’t end abruptly. If interest rates suddenly spike, or if there are signs the economy is slowing again, they can always open up the spigots and restore the flow of money.

Much of the impact likely will be psychological: The Fed figures if the policy change is gradual enough, the impact will be muted. That’s why it began signaling it’s timetable—pegged to the unemployment falling to 6.5 percent—late last year. With the jobless rate now at 7 percent, we’re getting close to that target.

And as long as inflation remains “anchored” at low levels, the Fed’s policymakers have said they’re inclined to use other more conventional means to keep interest rates low.

If their timing is right, the recovering job market will finally begin gathering more momentum on its own. Lower unemployment adds more steady paychecks to the economy, providing a much more sustainable flow of money into the economy than the Fed’s bond buying. As that added consumer spending feeds demand, more companies can expand and hire more workers, adding more paychecks—and the cycle continues.

Or at least that’s what the central bankers are hoping.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Could this be the busiest week yet for Asia markets?

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The year is rapidly drawing to a close but this is unlikely to be the week that Asia markets wind down – not with the Federal Reserve, Bank of Japan (BOJ) and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) all scheduled to meet.

In addition to major central bank meetings, Japan released its closely-watched Tankan business survey on Monday and HSBC released its flash purchasing managers’ index (PMI). The HSBC flash PMI slipped to a three-month low in December of 50.5.

Read more: Business sentiment in Japan hits a 6-year high

“This week could be one of the busiest, most market changing weeks of the year… and possibly the biggest FOMC [Federal Open Market Committee] meeting since the September 2012 when QE3 (third round of quantitative easing) was enacted,” said Evan Lucas, market strategist at trading firm IG, in a note.

The Fed concludes a two-day meeting on Wednesday amid heightened talk that it could use its final gathering of the year to start a widely-anticipated scaling back of its monetary stimulus program.

“I think they [Fed policymakers] are going to taper and I hope they will start to taper this week,” Richard Yetsenga, head of global markets research at ANZ, told CNBC Asia’s “Squawk Box.” “If the numbers stay healthy enough to suggest the economy is stabilizing, people will turn their minds to when the Fed will tighten interest rates.”

In Asia, the BOJ is expected to conclude a two-day meeting on Friday and the RBI holds a mid-quarter review on Wednesday.

Read more: Westpac’s contrarian view calls no taper in 2014

Analysts are not expecting any major policy announcements from the BOJ, although there is speculation that Japan’s central bank could step up its asset-purchase program, possibly in April to help offset the impact of a scheduled rise in the country’s sales tax on the economy.

In India, the RBI meeting is likely to be in focus after Governor Raghuram Rajan said last week the central bank would this week unveil steps to recognize financial distress and resolve it.

“The RBI will likely pause at its meeting on Wednesday after a cumulative 50 basis points [rate] hike since September,” analysts at Mizuho Corporate Bank said in a note.

“What’s more, with the RBI meeting scheduled ahead of the FOMC meeting, we think the central bank will likely wait for Fed’s decision before taking any action,” they added.

Economic data from Asia this week include India’s November wholesale price index later on Monday and Singapore export data on Tuesday.

Taiwan’s central bank is scheduled to meet on Wednesday, while in Australia, focus is likely to fall on the government’s mid-year budget review on Tuesday.

Read more: India market euphoria could end in disappointment

“The mid-year budget review on Tuesday will likely show a further blowout in the budget deficit for this financial year to around A$50 billion,” said Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy and chief economist at AMP Capital, in a research note.

— By CNBC.Com’s Dhara Ranasinghe; Follow her on Twitter @DharaCNBC

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‘Sense of achievement’ as Ireland leaves bailout

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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As Ireland gets ready to exit its bailout program this weekend, Finance Minister Michael Noonan tells CNBC that there is a sense of achievement that the economy is getting back on its feet.

He added that exports were likely to be the key driver of the economy going forward and expressed confidence in the government`s ability to bring down high debt levels.

(Read more: Ireland exits bailout: Mission not quite accomplished )

“There’s a great sense of achievement at having completed the task I set out to do almost three years ago,” Noonan said in an interview late Thursday. “We had a major economic and financial crisis that needed to be addressed. We addressed it by a series of progressive measures which we implemented on a timeframe.”

Ireland has relied on 85 billion euros ($114 billion) in international bailout loans and assistance from other euro zone countries, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank for the past three years.

But this Sunday, the small euro zone state exits the aid program.

Dublin has put in place stiff austerity measures and overhauled the banking system. There are still areas of concern such as high government debt levels and a weak banking sector. A recently completed balance sheet assessment of Ireland`s three bailed-out banks concluded that all three have not made adequate provisions for bad loans.

(Read more: Ireland risk long-term pain for short-term gain )

Data from Eurostat released in October showed that Ireland had a debt-to-GDP ratio last year of 117.4 percent, the fourth highest in the euro zone after Greece, Italy and Portugal.

Debt woes

“Our debt is going to peak at 124 percent of GDP this year but then it will go down,” Noonan said. “We are at the highest point but it`s entirely sustainable. We are working on a series of initiatives to bring the debt back down.”

He said that there was no evidence that state banks required extra capital following a recent asset quality review.

“But we will be very cautious because we know bank credit is what we need to fuel a growing economy. Our policies are careful in approaching banking issues,” Noonan added.

Asked to address criticism that foreign companies were using Ireland as a tax base, Noonan said: “That simply isn`t true. Google is here, they have 3,500 people working here in Dublin.”

(Read more: Ireland`s latest austerity cut )

Noonan said he believed the next news on Ireland from Moody`s was likely to be positive. Ireland is currently ranked as non-investment grade by Moody`s ratings agency.

“In conversations with Moody`s, our National Treasury Management Agency, which manages the debt, is of the view that Moody`s adverse view is to do with having an adverse view on euro zone rather than particularly an adverse view of Ireland,” he said.

“But I`ve no doubt at all that the next time we hear Moody`s talking about Ireland it will be good news rather than bad news.”

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