During Brazilian President Lula’s recent visit to China, the leaders of the two countries have been discussing, among other things, the prospects of abandoning the US dollar in bilateral trade operations. This would mean that Chinese importers would purchase Brazilian goods in Chinese yuan, and vice versa. Personally, I couldn’t agree more with former Brazilian… [Read more]
The departure of the speaker of the UK’s House of Commons over his handling of the MPs’ expenses scandal is now yesterday’s news (but can still be seen here). His resignation speech may only have lasted 33 seconds, but the ramifications will be much more significant. The key point to note is that Speaker Michael… [Read more]
Markus Schneider and Lisa Lewin from BMI’s Africa desk introduce next month’s theme of Business Monitor’s ‘Roundtable Discussion’. With the global recession in full swing, why will Sub-Saharan Africa outperform most EM regions?
It is tempting to dismiss the annual Eurovision Song Contest (broadcast on Saturday evening) as meaningless nonsense, and an exercise in which country can embarrass itself the most. However, I think this is far too hasty a judgement. Having watched it on and off for several years, I’d say it is still possible to make… [Read more]
Among other things, I’m just wrapping up a three-day working trip to Istanbul, where I participated in an investor’s conference focusing on the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region as well as met BMI clients to discuss views from the ground level. I figured I would take the opportunity while I’m waiting for my flight… [Read more]
When a friend of mine asked me what was happening with the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)’s leadership race on Saturday May 16, I replied ‘the frontrunner is a 40-something Afro-Japanese woman, daughter of a US marine, who is a self-made nanotechnology business guru’. That was a joke, obviously, but it does underscore the… [Read more]
Is there any country in the world that is going to do better in 2009 than in 2008, as measured by real GDP growth? I think so. In fact, I think there’s a country that could have its strongest growth number in a decade, despite the global economic crisis. It’s called Zimbabwe. Granted, the bar… [Read more]
