Global Economy. United States. Japan. North Korea. South Korea. Western Europe. China. India. Emerging regions.
Specialist subjects:
The global economy including major exchange rates and interest rates, IMF/G7, monetary and fiscal policy. The economies and politics in the countries detailed above as well as other emerging regions, and global forecasts. Automotive industry.
Background:
Robert Ward is the Director of the global forecasting team. In this role he oversees the Economist Intelligence Unit's global forecast and, in cooperation with more than 100 country specialists, leads the company's response to changing economic and political trends. Robert also publishes the Economist Intelligence Unit's flagship monthly report on the outlook for the world economy and has special responsibility for the US economic and political forecast. He also plays a core role in communicating the Economist Intelligence Unit's forecasts to clients and other high-level audiences around the world in his capacity as one of the company's leading external speakers.
Before taking up his global role, Robert was a senior member of the Economist Intelligence Unit's Asia team with special responsibility for Japan, the Koreas and regional issues. With 20 years of experience working on or in the region, seven of which were spent living in Japan, Robert remains one of the Economist Intelligence Unit's leading Asia specialists. In 2006-08 Robert also led the Economist Intelligence Unit's automotive team, co-ordinating industry forecasts over nearly 60 countries and formulating the company's view of sectoral trends.
Robert lived in Japan in 1989-96, latterly working in the international rating division at the Japan Bond Research Institute (now Japan Rating and Investment Information), Japan's largest bond rating agency. He is a fluent speaker of Japanese and regularly contributes to international and Japanese media on global and regional issues. He also appears frequently on the BBC, CNN, CNBC and other broadcast media. Robert has also worked in Germany and, briefly, attended university in the Soviet Union. Robert holds a bachelors and masters degree from Cambridge University.
