Myanmar’s continuing reform drive has attracted the interest of investors around the world, but the question remains whether or not we are witnessing a true opening up of one of the world’s most secluded states. Rahul Ghosh, Head of Asia Research, discusses with Andrew Wood, Asia Country Risk Analyst, and Daniel Gan, Infrastructure analyst, the… [Read more]
Regular readers of this website will recall that we coined the acronym BLANKs in 2008 to refer to a group of extreme frontier market economies in Asia which have considerable development potential, but are being constrained by highly unusual or adverse political or geopolitical conditions. These are Burma (Myanmar), Laos, Afghanistan, and North Korea. All… [Read more]
The Nabucco pipeline project, which has long been backed by the EU to reduce the continent’s dependency on Russian gas, has been made redundant by the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline project. The latter is a joint venture (JV) between Azerbaijan’s state oil company Socar and Turkey’s Botas pipeline corporation, and their planned pipeline will carry natural… [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]
Business Monitor’s Head of Africa Country Risk and Financial Markets Lisa Lewin shares her impressions after a recent trip to Nigeria and Ghana in late October.
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]
