John is a Senior Analyst for Asia-Pacific based in The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Hong Kong office. He covers Vietnam, Indonesia and Hong Kong. His specialist research interests include monetary policy, tourism and electronics goods trade, while he has also had tenures covering Bangladesh, Mongolia, Taiwan and Thailand. John is also the Asia Manager for Country Risk Service, The Economist Intelligence Unit’s credit risk rating product.

Before joining the EIU he worked as a Project Officer on several European Commission business facilitation projects in Beijing, China. He also previously worked for The Asia Foundation in Mongolia, a non-government international organisation, on their anti-corruption and good mining practices programmes. John holds a Master's degree in Economics with reference to the Asia-Pacific region from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where he specialised in the economic and demographic development of China and East Asia.

Barsali is a Manager in The EIU's Industry Briefing operations where she oversees a team of six analysts and the subscription services across three of our industries, with a special focus on consumer goods and retail. She is responsible for producing analysis on consumer behaviour, retail trends as well as five-year forecasts aimed at estimating sizes of consumer markets across 53 countries.

She joined The EIU in 2016 as an analyst focused on the telecoms industry. Prior to this she was an associate at Evalueserve, a research agency, working on custom projects for multinational corporations. She has over three years of experience as a business journalist, working with Business Standard and India Today, two Indian newspapers, covering the e-commerce, hospitality and education beats.

Barsali holds a Bachelor's degree in English Literature from St. Xavier’s College and a post-graduate degree in Media and Communication from Indian Institute of Mass Communication.

Simon Baptist is Editorial Director and Chief Economist at The Economist Intelligence Unit. Prior to his current role, he has held a number of other senior management and editorial positions in the business, including Managing Director for Asia, Regional Director of our Asia editorial team, Director of Global Forecasting, and Consulting Director in both Europe and Asia

Simon’s focus is on the global economy, national and international political developments, and public policy. He engages with business, government and international organisations, helping them to understand the operational and strategic implications of the EIU’s forecasts.

He has a doctorate in economics from and was a lecturer at Oxford University, along with degrees in economics and science from the University of Tasmania. His academic research investigated technology and the determinants of productivity in manufacturing firms.