Seek, and ye shall find your queries on a year-end list.
Such is the case for Asia’s Googlers, whose most popular financial searches of 2016 have been compiled and released by the company. The data is evidence of the roller coaster year it’s been for some of the world’s biggest economies, where local political scandals roiled the markets at the same time that curveballs from outside the region heightened volatility and triggered capital outflows.
After watching $5 trillion evaporate from China’s stock market last year, investors may have thought they deserved a calmer 2016. Yet, the flurry of bad news, from South Korea’s trio of political, economic and corporate scandals to India’s shock decision to junk 86 percent of its currency bills, ensured the year has been anything but. Add to that the U.K.’s June vote to leave the European Union and Donald Trump’s shock election in the U.S., and you start to understand why China’s dwindling foreign-currency reserves lay behind the country’s most popular financial search term.
Using Google’s data, here are four charts that gauge the pulse of Asian economies in 2016.
