Dr Simon Baptist

Simon is the Principal Economist for Asia Pacific at Visa, responsible for analysis and thought leadership on economics and business in the region. An engaging and renowned economic communicator who can make economic ideas actionable and relevant to stakeholders across financial services, corporates and government, he briefs boards and executives, gives keynote presentations at large events, and has regularly appeared on international broadcast media.

His career so far has involved close to two decades of progressively more senior experience as a professional economist. Prior to Visa, he was the Global Chief Economist at the EIU, the world’s leading private sector economic forecaster, where he developed a global reputation delivering economic and geopolitical insight. At Visa, he briefs financial institutions, banks, governments and technology firms on topics such as the Asia Pacific economic outlook, travel and tourism, consumer trends, trade and supply chains, productivity and the night-time economy.

He has a doctorate in Economics from the University of Oxford, where his research investigated productivity and technology in emerging market manufacturing firms. This postgraduate study followed degrees in Economics and Science from the University of Tasmania. He has published a number of academic articles, including in World Development, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, University of Oxford working paper series, and Global Journal of Emerging Market Economies, as well as leading or contributing to a large number of EIU publications, such as the Global Economic Outlook, and wrote the ‘From Our Chief Economist’ newsletter for nearly 10 years. He also spent time as a lecturer at Oxford University and an economics consultant focussing on climate change, productivity and development economics.

Simon is an expert in analysis global economic trends and shares his insights on macro-economic environment across the globe and Asia Pacific region with a lens on the impact on payments, consumers and business.