We find that the binding constraint on recapitalizing Vietnam's banks is not the appetite of foreign capital but the interaction of a rising capital standard with a 30% aggregate foreign-ownership ceiling. At end-2024 the system's capital-adequacy ratio was 12.5%, roughly eight percentage points bel

We document that the two series routinely reported as 'Southeast Asian FDI' diverged over 2020-2024 in both direction and composition. Announced greenfield project value (fDi Markets) rose to a record USD 175.1 billion in 2023, up 55.8% on 2022, in the same year that realized balance-of-payments inf

We examine where foreign direct investment enters Southeast Asia's food economy and find it concentrated almost entirely downstream, in processing and beverages, with primary farming reached only at the margin. The pattern is the local form of a global rule: worldwide, food, beverage and tobacco man

We read Singapore's place in Asian capital flows from both sides of its direct-investment balance sheet. At end-2023 the inward stock stood at S$2,858.8 billion, or 4.2 times GDP and about 1.9 times the S$1,535.8 billion Singapore held abroad, and more than half of it (56%, S$1,610.9 billion) sat in