Topic: Inflation

Four years of economic crisis and market turmoil that have sent German bund yields to record lows now have half of the top bond strategists and economists polled by Reuters fearing a Japan-style "Lost Decade".

Continued weakness in China’s economic data, as well as growing risks of a Greek exit from the euro zone, will drive Beijing to launch aggressive stimulus measures in order to prevent a further deterioration of growth in the world’s second largest economy, economists and strategists told CNBC.

Fixed-income investors are once again looking sage-like, as the latest eruption in the EU crisis ravages equities.  Two of these funds are up more than 7 percent.

Strong demand for Germany’s two-year bonds, which offer nothing in return, shows that opening Pandora’s Box in Europe has sapped investor confidence, Jim O'Neill, chairman at Goldman Sachs Asset Management told CNBC’s “Worldwide Exchange.”

The Indian rupee dropped to a record low against the dollar on Wednesday, sparking mild intervention from a central bank seen by traders as reluctant to be more aggressive against such a strong down trend. 

Singapore inflation hit a slightly higher-than-expected 5.4 percent in April, increasing the chance that it may exceed a government forecast for the year and putting pressure on the central bank to keep a tighter monetary policy.

With Japan awash in cheap funding provided by domestic savings and local banks continuing to park their cash in government bonds, analysts tell CNBC the country faces no urgency in dealing with its rising public debt, despite the latest ratings cut by Fitch.

The Bank of Japan kept monetary policy steady on Wednesday, preferring to save its ammunition as Europe's deepening debt crisis may warrant further action in the coming months to fend off damage to the fragile economy.

Japan's sovereign rating was cut by one notch by Fitch on Tuesday as a political stalemate dims the chance that the country can curb its snowballing debt.

Chinese growth is likely to slow to 8.2 percent this year, its weakest in more than a decade, before government support helps it rebound to 9.3 percent in 2013, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said Tuesday.

Japan was the world's major creditor in 2011, for the 21st consecutive year, reflecting corporations' aggressive foreign acquisitions and Japan's prodigious foreign currency intervention.

Britain's Barclays said it is to sell all of its $6.1 billion stake in U.S. asset manager BlackRock which it has held for almost three years.

The Indian rupee hit a record low against the dollar for a second session in a row on Thursday as global risk assets remained largely under pressure, leading the central bank to intervene again, according to traders. 

Oil fell on Thursday, touching the lowest level since December, as investors avoided bets on riskier assets with the turmoil in Greece deepening and fears rising of contagion spreading to other euro zone economies.

China's state-owned companies reported an 8.6 percent profit decline in the first four months compared with a year earlier as the world's second-biggest economy continued to slow.