India's Union Budget, announced on the 28th February, broadly delivered what markets were looking for, but will have disappointed some expectations.

The year of the goat, which has just begun, looks likely to herald a major push by China to establish a new “Silk Road”, the adoption of a new five-year plan to boost the country's social and economic development and a pick-up in the pace of financial reform, according to Ross Teverson and Charles Sunnucks of the Jupiter Global Emerging Markets Team.

According to Eric Chaney Head of Research at AXA Investment Managers, this will not be the end of the Greek saga, since funding will remain quite challenging until the last tranche of the bailout is disbursed and the interest payments on the bonds held by the ECB are paid to the Greek Treasury...

The financial and economic crisis has shown that central banks need leeway for ad hoc interventions in the monetary and credit cycle. A clear separation between financial and monetary policy would be a first step towards long-term stability.

Chinese economic reforms continue, but the authorities are going about it carefully. After all, they don't want to risk missing their growth targets. Oil-price declines and the US growth recovery are providing some welcome wind in China's wings.