Jim Walker (economist)

Prior to establishing Asianomics [1] in December 2007 he was the chief economist at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets. He joined CLSA in late 1991. Over the years Dr Jim achieved numerous 'best economist' rankings in the Asiamoney, Institutional Investor and Greenwich surveys of fund managers. In 1995 he wrote about the prospect of Asia being forced off its de facto dollar peg “within the next two-three years”. The Asian Crisis, precipitated by the Thai baht devaluation, began in July 1997.

In recent years he is best known for forecasting the US 2007 downturn and financial sector meltdown in his series of 'Apocalypse' reports and for becoming more upbeat on India and Southeast Asia in his Asia Connected and World War Three strategy reports. In December 2016, for the first time in ten years, he went overweight on China and reinforced that call in his April 2017 report, China: The Bull Among Us.

He has also developed an approach to analysing Asian economies based on profit and credit cycles as well as a series of 'Austrian' stress indicators. Application of this approach allowed him to call early the upswing in the Indian stock market in the final quarter of 2013. The models are currently signaling a buy on China, Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Before coming to Asia, he worked in his native Scotland as a research fellow at the Fraser of Allander Institute for Research on the Scottish Economy, and then at The Royal Bank of Scotland's Edinburgh headquarters. Between 1998 and 2002 he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree and a doctorate in economics from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.

Walker published Wealthy Nations, an economic newsletter, from 2016-2018.

• Asianomics Group website
• Wealthy Nations site