The Price of the Falling Yen
Japan's currency has continued to fall despite rising interest rates, exposing the limits of monetary policy when global markets move against domestic priorities.
5 min read
Ahana Bhattacharya
Senior Researcher - Macro
Bristol BSc Economics
About Ahana
I am an Economics student at the University of Bristol with a particular interest in macroeconomics, international development and trade, and the intersection of economics, technology, and public policy. My writing focuses on combining economic theory with current affairs, using data-driven analysis to explain complex issues in an accessible and engaging way.
Alongside my studies, I have worked as a Summer Intern at the UK Trade Remedies Authority, where I contributed to trade policy analysis and gained experience in economic evaluation, evidence-based decision making, and communicating technical findings. I also completed a competitive placement on Leaf’s Maths of Morality course, where I explored how advanced mathematical methods can be applied to real-world decision-making and policy problems. The course strengthened my analytical approach and reinforced my interest in using quantitative methods to tackle complex economic questions.
Through both my writing and professional experience, I enjoy examining the long-term forces shaping economies and aim to produce work that goes beyond the headlines with clear, evidence-based analysis.
Articles 15
Macro Markets The New Battle for Capital
As governments and technology companies compete for increasingly expensive capital, rising bond yields are reshaping the cost of borrowing. Does the growing demand for debt means for governments, financial markets and the future of the AI boom.
Ahana Bhattacharya6 min read
Macro The Women Behind Bangladesh’s Growth
How Bangladesh’s garment industry transformed more than just the country’s exports, giving millions of women paid employment and reshaping education, fertility and household decision-making.
Ahana Bhattacharya7 min read
Macro The Value beyond the Commodity
Many developing economies are rich in commodities but capture little of the value created from them. Moving beyond extraction and into processing, manufacturing and branding could be key to escaping commodity dependence.
Ahana Bhattacharya4 min read
Macro The Map is worth more than the Mine
Congo is paying to map its own subsoil and intends to charge for the results. The bet is that better information, rather than more investment, is what turns mineral wealth into bargaining power.
Ahana Bhattacharya4 min read
Macro The War Economy's Breaking Point
Higher taxes, heavier borrowing and a labour market with no slack left are keeping Russia's war economy going. What the Kremlin sacrifices to keep it going is the real question.
Sitian Huo with Ahana Bhattacharya8 min read
Macro An Uneasy Argument for Digitisation
Digitisation transforms economies but its success ultimately depends on governing institutions. From India's UPI and Estonia's e-government to Britain's digital ID debate and China's surveillance infrastructure, which institutions are strong enough to keep it in check?
Ahana Bhattacharya6 min read
Macro Britain wants its factories back. But does it want the jobs too?
Britain's industrial strategy promises to bring factories back, and the investment commitments are real. But a modern plant employs a fraction of the workers an old one did, and the political case for manufacturing still rests on job numbers the technology no longer produces.
Ahana Bhattacharya8 min read
Macro China's Property Crisis: The Reckoning After Evergrande
Evergrande founder Hui Ka Yan's life sentence has renewed scrutiny of a property crash that has dragged down growth, confidence and consumer spending across the world's second-largest economy.
Sitian Huo with Ahana Bhattacharya7 min read
Macro Europe's Bond Market Is Sending a Warning
Germany has abandoned the borrowing rules that defined it, and the euro zone is heading for record bond supply just as the ECB stops buying and starts tightening. Yields are climbing accordingly. The question is no longer whether Europe can borrow, but whether what it buys with the money is worth what the money now costs.
Ahana Bhattacharya8 min read
Markets The Blood Economy
The US supplies most of the world's blood plasma. Yet its policies raise hard questions about exploitation, dignity, and what happens when payment for plasma is banned.
Sitian Huo with Ahana Bhattacharya8 min read
Macro The Fed Isn’t the Only One Setting Interest Rates
Why the bond market may have become America’s biggest macroeconomic problem
Ahana Bhattacharya9 min read
Macro The Economics behind Catastrophe
Drought on the Danube has forced nuclear plants in Hungary and Romania to cut output. Chernobyl and Fukushima show why the economic damage from a disaster travels far beyond the site, through budgets, supply chains and expectations, and why it lasts.
Ahana Bhattacharya13 min read
Macro The World's Factory Has Run Out of Customers
For decades China was constrained by what it could produce. It is now constrained by what its households will buy, and the surplus it exports instead is reshaping trade policy across the world.
Ahana Bhattacharya7 min read
Macro The Economics of Attention: How Algorithms Rewired the Market
Algorithmic feeds have quietly become a dominant force in setting asset prices and mobilising political movements, from GameStop to India's Cockroach Janata Party, while regulators still lack the tools to measure how virality converts into capital and power.
Ahana Bhattacharya8 min read