One of the big issues being debated among European leaders lately is whether political power – principally over fiscal policy – should be further centralised in order to save the eurozone from collapse. ‘Eurocrats’ seem to favour centralisation, but many national governments, not to mention their electorates, oppose this. They fear, not unreasonably, that a… [Read more]
At the last European Council meeting, EU leaders covered a number of strategic energy-related questions, including market liberalisation, energy efficiency and infrastructure, external relations, renewable, and sustainable low carbon technologies. BMI believes that the considerations on infrastructure are by far the most significant and anticipates that both the greenfield and brownfield projects will generate substantial… [Read more]
Several developments in 2010 will linger well into 2011. My colleagues and BMI’s Oil and Gas Team see industry majors continuing their push into deepwater drilling and unconventional hydrocarbons, while cash-rich national oil companies keep looking for upstream opportunities. Depressed US gas prices are unlikely to move significantly in 2011, while Asia-Pacific remains the LNG… [Read more]
An agreement on autos trade between South Korea and the US has ended over three years of wrangling to address an imbalance, which the US believes is heavily stacked in South Korea’s favour. While tariffs and a timeframe for their withdrawal have all been negotiated, it is the non-tariff barriers that have been central to… [Read more]
In 2008 a nuclear renaissance in Europe and North America was heralded for a variety of reasons: A combination of high oil and gas prices meant nuclear was cost competitive The need to expand electricity generating capacity as Communist-era power plants in Eastern Europe and heavy polluting plants in Western Europe were due to shut… [Read more]
The M&A market is continuing to roar. And with Q3 2010 M&A preliminary figures now out, the evidence is more than anecdotal: according to Thomson Reuters data, global dealmaking is up 21%, which constitutes the strongest quarter for M&A since Q3 2008. Indeed, Q3 2010 activity totalled US$599bn, the third consecutive quarter of growth, up… [Read more]
On this week’s Business Monitor Podcast, we revisit Central and Eastern Europe and our core macroeconomic strategy favouring Turkey and Poland. Has the region shaken off the structural imbalances which made it a focal point of crisis risks or is the positive convergence story no longer a core defining feature for the growth outlook? BMI’s… [Read more]
