As many readers will have observed over the past few weeks, Hungary has become the focus of attention in Central & Eastern Europe (CEE), and for all the wrong reasons. The country finds itself caught in a financial storm equivalent in magnitude to that witnessed in late 2008, with the forint trading close to its… [Read more]
Brazil’s economy benefits from an almost perfect commodity mix, a rapidly rising consumer base and a government committed to improving the country’s investment climate, suggesting that it will continue to grow at a robust pace over the coming years. However, a reluctance by monetary policymakers to tighten credit conditions, for fear of hurting growth and… [Read more]
China’s 2010 real GDP growth figure came in at 10.3%, slightly exceeding BMI’s revised forecast of 10.2%. With no breakdown of the data available as of yet, I can only conclude that growth momentum ended 2010 on a stronger note than expected (by ourselves and the market). Data on retail sales, which rose by 19.1%… [Read more]
The three Baltic economies of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia have been the biggest losers of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, contracting by 14.1%, 14.8% and a whopping 18.0% in 2009 respectively. After overheating in the preceding three years (Latvia grew on average 10.9% between 2005 and 2007), tightening global credit conditions towards the tail-end of… [Read more]
China’s Dagong Global Credit Rating Co earlier this week released what it described as the first ever assessment of sovereign credit risks by a non-Western ratings agency. Dagong’s report covers 50 countries (20 in Europe, 17 in Asia, 2 in North America, 6 in South America, 3 in Africa, and 2 in Oceania) comprising 90%… [Read more]
This morning’s global equity market sell-off could have had something to do with the People’s Bank of China (PBOC)’s decision to raise the reserve requirement ratio from 15.5% to 16.0% for large domestic banks and from 13.5% to 14.0% for small banks from January 18. This followed two hikes in central bank bill rates, and… [Read more]
President Rafael Correa’s game of chicken with Ecuador’s external creditors finally came to an ugly end on Friday, when he announced he would prefer to take on the ‘monster’ bondholders in court rather than pay up. While many Ecuadoreans will no doubt admire their president’s courage for standing up to those responsible for the country’s… [Read more]
