Over the coming week, my colleagues and I will be publishing our global and regional economic outlooks for 2012 on Business Monitor Online. The good news is that we have just published our Africa Outlook today. In this article, we identify and discuss five themes for the next 12 months: Weak external demand, due to… [Read more]

Myanmar (or Burma, as many still call it) has long been an economic laggard in Asia. Over the past few decades, virtually every other Asian state has boomed or emerged on investors’ radars in some way – but not Myanmar. The reason is, of course, Myanmar’s pariah status, economic isolationism, and chronic mismanagement. However, recent… [Read more]

In line with our long-held expectations of an enduring economic slowdown in India, the recently-released GDP figure showed a sharp downturn in activity – marking the sixth consecutive quarter where headline expansion has decelerated. Real GDP growth came in at 6.9% y-o-y in the second quarter of the current fiscal year (FY2011/12, April-March), down significantly… [Read more]

China’s growing role in Africa has become something of a cliché by now, yet my colleagues and I decided to re-examine this megatrend in Business Monitor Online and in our weekly Emerging Markets Monitor magazine. Overall, China’s rise presents both opportunities and risks for Africa. Although trade statistics suggest the relationship is dominated by China’s… [Read more]

In spite of ongoing political turmoil across the MENA region and a grim outlook for the global economy, Qatar is booming. Real GDP is set to grow by around 17% in 2011, inflation is low, and government finances remain comfortably in the black. All this has given the country a reputation as something of a… [Read more]

Although global growth has turned markedly weaker over the past few months, Riskwatchdog believes that the fixed investment outlook for Latin America in 2012 is looking pretty strong, and set to remain that way over the next few years. So, why is the outlook so good? Well, for starters the nature of the major investment… [Read more]

Chinese companies are to continue seeking iron ore, copper, and bauxite projects overseas as the country has a significant supply deficit in these metals. Regarding iron ore, China accounts for 14.9% of global production but consumes over 40% of the world’s steel output. This differential is replicated in copper and bauxite, and China is thus… [Read more]