Household debt has fueled China's housing, consumption, and economic growth. Households' large financial and housing assets mitigate the risks of rising leverage. However, household leverage is no longer low relative to income, and can no longer be used to stimulate economic growth. 

The GCC countries followed the Fed and cut their key policy rates, given their pegged exchange rates. Lower interest rates will encourage borrowing and stimulate non-oil growth, which has been weak in recent years. We expect non-oil growth to pick up from 2.1% in 2018 to 2.8% in 2019. 
 

Currency tensions among advanced countries are on the rise, driven by the perception that the US Dollar could be overvalued. We now use our currency valuation framework to examine US Dollar valuation, and look today at the size and composition of the US current account. The US current account deficit is almost entirely (80%) with China. Dollar overvaluation, if it exists, is therefore mostly versus EM Asia.

Vietnam has further integrated into regional supply chains. It has benefited from US trade diversion away from China, and production reallocation and investment by Chinese firms. The key risk is the US changing its policy stance towards Vietnam.