As I write this, Japan is once again in a funk. The yen has come ever so close to its post-WW2 high of JPY79.70/US$ seen in 1995, the Nikkei has touched 16-month lows, and now, the governing Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has become embroiled in an internal power struggle between Prime Minister Naoto Kan [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 American, 6 in South American, 3 in Africa, and 2 in Oceania) comprising 90% [Read more...]

The last few weeks have marked a low point in French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s time at the Elysee Palace, and the pressure is unlikely to let up any time soon. Although his embattled Labour Minister Eric Woerth was ‘acquitted’ over a tax cover-up by the Finance Ministry on Sunday, accusations that both Woerth and Sarkozy [Read more...]

Japan’s new prime minister, Naoto Kan, has been given a poisoned chalice to say the least. Although GDP is growing again, the magnitude of the country’s economic challenges is gargantuan:

A fiscal deficit of around 10% of GDP
A public debt burden of 200% of GDP
An ageing [Read more...]

My colleagues at BMI inform me that Liberia is ‘one to watch’ in Sub-Saharan Africa. It has bright economic prospects, thanks to sound macroeconomic policy, burgeoning investment in the mining sector and forthcoming debt relief.

The Liberian economy demonstrated resilience amid the global recession, boding well for its future prospects. BMI estimates that real GDP growth [Read more...]

Rumours are still swirling on the subject of the Dubai World (DW) restructuring, and I am not yet convinced that the time to initiate a long-term bullish position on Dubai stocks has come, in spite of the recent rally. I have heard various theories on DW, and I am inclined to the optimistic side: the [Read more...]

One of the things that has been troubling me more and more lately is Japan’s colossal debt burden, which is heading towards 200% of GDP. At the moment, the debt burden is existing in an equilibrium of sorts, with Japanese financial institutions seemingly content to keep buying Japanese Government Bonds (JGBs). In a climate of [Read more...]