Barometer poll shows business wary of Brics
With more than a year’s worth of of data from our exclusive business sentiment poll, the FT/Economist Global Business Barometer, now available, some interesting longitudinal patterns are becoming apparent for the first time.
Most notable among them is the steady erosion over the past year in executives’ perceptions of the “business friendliness” three of the world’s biggest developing economies, India, China and Brazil.
Political attention in recent years has focused on the renminbi’s nominal exchange rate with the dollar, with pressure on China to let the renminbi appreciate.
In fact, over time the renminbi has appreciated against the dollar, particularly when the real exchange rate – which accounts for domestic inflation relative to foreign inflation – is calculated. But the appreciation against other currencies has been much milder, especially the euro.
This interactive graphic explores how China’s real and nominal exchange rates against its main trading partners have fluctuated over time using data constructed by Eswar Prasad, professor at Cornell University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
A new military spending forecast from analysts at IHS Jane’s Defence suggests that China’s defence spending will accelerate substantially in the next three years.
This interactive graphic examines defence spending and gross domestic product growth in the region – as well as showing contextual numbers for the US – the world’s biggest spender on defence. Read more
| About this blog | Blog guide |
Kate Allen works in the editorial statistics team in London. She previously specialised in housing data reporting for a national trade magazine.
Chris Cook works in the FT's comment team. After joining the FT in 2008 as a Peter Martin Fellow, he worked for two years as a leader writer and then as education correspondent.
Emily Cadman joined the FT in 2010 and is head of the interactive desk.
Martin Stabe works on the FT's interactive team, specialising in databases for interactive graphics.
Keith Fray heads the editorial statistics team, providing data for articles and graphics. His background is in economics, studying at Birkbeck College, London.
Norma Cohen is the FT's Demography Correspondent.
Valentina Romei is a statistical researcher at the FT. She joined the FT in 2008 after working both as an academic and market researcher.
