Markets

One of the challenges facing African countries is that the global environment is rather unfriendly. This hampers their efforts to tap into global markets. Additionally, African economies are hindered by them still depending heavily on external assistance. Domestic revenue mobilisation...

There has been a chronic failure among economists to explain growth in Africa. The methods and analytical angles they have used to explain relative failure in Africa came in the 1990s, but these were unsuitable for explaining growth in the...

The higher they rise, the harder they fall. No politician in post-Suharto Indonesia has risen higher and faster than Joko Widodo (Jokowi), whose win in the 2014 presidential elections was considered a breath of fresh air for a vibrant but...

Three years ago this month, ECB President Draghi issued his now-famous pledge to do "whatever it takes" to save the euro.  Indeed, it has done its part.  The ECB has a negative deposit rate, something that even with a protracted...

The markets remain off-kilter.  The dollar has recouped a little of the ground lost yesterday.   Reports in a Greek paper that Tsipras may be reconsidering Juncker's proposal may prevent a deeper pullback in the euro, which found a bid near...

Nearly 15 years after embarking on its large-scale decentralisation initiative, Indonesia has decided to extend its efforts to the village level. Decentralising to the nearly 74,000 villages is intended to improve service delivery performance at the lowest administrative tier and...

EM assets start the weak on a soft note, driven by risk off sentiment stemming from Greek developments.  The weekend PBOC easing measures had little impact, with China stocks adding to their recent losses.  With another strong US jobs report...

1) The Brazilian congress passed a new measure that will hurt the fiscal outlook, 2) Brazil central bank kept the inflation target for 2017 the same at 4.5%, but narrowed the tolerance band to +/ 1.5 percentage points, 3) Israel...

Forecasts of China’s future run the gamut. I do not endorse either extreme. There is no significant chance that in the foreseeable future the Communist government will follow the fate of the Soviet Union. Nor do I share the view...

Africa’s only regional bank, the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), has come a long way since its near collapse in 1995. It now reflects its mandate to fight poverty by aiding public and private investment projects that promote socioeconomic improvement....

Recent plans to privatise a number of Australian ports have become very messy. In Victoria, both sides of government were committed to privatising the Port of Melbourne Corporation (PoMC), intending to use the proceeds to remove a number of level...

The landmark Australia–China Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA), signed sealed and delivered, completes a trifecta of trade deals since last year with Australia’s three Northeast Asian neighbours — China, Japan, and South Korea. The landmark Australia–China Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA), signed...

Not so long ago, China’s A-share index lingered around 2,000. Before last week’s plunge, it closed at 5,200. In the short-term, the market will remain volatile, but just as China’s economy has not emulated typical market fluctuations, its potential should...

Investors have been more focused Japan's aggressive monetary policy and the structural reforms promised under Abenomics than fiscal policy. However, the Abe government is taking a new fiscal initiative. It has taken on a new more ambitious goal, which was...

A visionary new leader, Narendra Modi, has recently come to power in India. He seeks to realise India’s huge growth potential and make it a major global player. This has generated enormous optimism nationally, and internationally, about an Indian resurgence....