The Brazilian consumer sector is one of the most dynamic in the world, with growing incomes and a strong consumer culture driving up spending and delivering impressive revenue growth for the country’s retailers. The market is also relatively immature, with tremendous potential for expansion in underdeveloped parts of the country. Given this it is no [Read more...]
On this week’s Business Monitor Podcast we assess the outlook for global treasury markets. 2010 has thus far been a gangbusters year for treasuries and the implications for interest rate and inflation expectations has heavily reinforced our core macroeconomic outlook for a major downturn in global demand growth. Key questions addressed in the podcast include: [Read more...]
For some years now, social scientists and some economic historians have spoken about how cities are displacing nation-states as the most important actors on the world stage. The latest edition of Foreign Policy magazine carries an article along these lines, with the tag ‘The age of nations is over. The new urban age has begun’. [Read more...]
Infrastructure has shown resilience in the face of the economic downturn, and investment in the sector was used to boost aggregate demand during the global recession of 2009. However, governments around the world are now moving from stimulus to austerity. As the dust settles on the new initiatives used to attract private (rather than public) [Read more...]
Massive capital inflows across South America raise the spectre that authorities throughout the region are about to impose capital controls. Support for exporters appears to be the main reason for such intervention, but fears over a rapid withdrawal of ‘hot money’ in the event of another ‘double-dip’ also appear to be a factor.
Risk Watchdog believes [Read more...]
On this week’s Business Monitor Podcast, we continue our theme of ‘top emerging market picks’ with a focus on Latin America. BMI’s Head of Country Risk and Financial Markets Justin Patrie discusses the region with Head of Latin America Analysis Richard Hamilton and Latin America Analyst Martha Stickings. Specific countries discussed include Colombia, Brazil, Panama [Read more...]
Corruption is a major problem for most emerging markets, and in truth, quite a few developed states. Time and time again in BMI’s analysis on emerging markets, my colleagues and I have written on how governments need to crack down on corruption, if they want to attract greater foreign investment and prosper. However, this is [Read more...]
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