Looking at change

The book, The Rise and Fall of Nations. [Photo provided to China Daily]

New York-based financial expert Ruchir Sharma praises China's Belt and Road Initiative in his latest book, Andrew Moody reports.

Ruchir Sharma insists he likes to write for the intelligent, informed reader who wants to know how the real world works.

The chief global strategist at US company Morgan Stanley Investment Management certainly has no shortage of readers.

His latest book, The Rise and Fall of Nations: Forces of Change in a Post-Crisis World, is already a New York Times international best-seller.

"Books about global macro economics and political ideas are often typically written by academics and have zero practical value," says Sharma.

"They often have these long time horizons and don't look at what the world is going to look like in the next five or 10 years, which I think most people are concerned with."

Sharma, also a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal and Washington Post and who was speaking from his home in New York, is something of a celebrity economic guru.

His first book, Breakout Nations: In Pursuit of the Next Economic Miracles, also a best-seller, firmly pricked the hype bubble surrounding emerging nations while being optimistic about China's ability to break out of the so-called middle-income trap.