The year in numbers

China’s role in the global economy is under intense scrutiny, thanks in no small part to the US president’s Twitter account. But while Donald Trump continues to rail against unfair competition, intellectual property theft and currency manipulation, China’s financial markets are finally opening up. “The theme of the opening up of China’s economy to the rest of the world has been talked about for decades, but the pace of change in the last 12 months has been remarkable,” said Julien Kasparian, head of securities services for Hong Kong at BNP...

The period since the global financial crisis has coincided with a time of heavy investment by Japanese financial institutions. Emerging from their own 1990s banking crisis and the economic torpor of the post-bubble era, Japan’s restructured and rejuvenated banks looked overseas for growth from an enviable position of strength. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group’s purchase of a 24.4% stake in Morgan Stanley and Nomura buying Lehman Brothers’ European and Asian businesses were the most high-profile examples of Japanese banks moving out into the world...

Just what was it that made 2018 so terrifying for the Asian debt markets? Perhaps it was all about rising US interest rates and their impact on the global cost of money. Perhaps it was about a slowing Chinese economy, dragged down by Donald Trump’s petulant trade war and the fear of a collapsing debt mountain. Or was it the start of a great reckoning, following the irrational exuberance of the quest for yield over the past decade or so, as central banks turn off the spigot of quantitative easing? The year has been fractious, nervous, with a...

A carefully selected collection of the highlights of 2018, as illustrated by Harry Harrison