The outlook for the eurozone is looking steadily worse. Key European economies have thus far failed to capitalise on the bounce in headline growth seen in the US and emerging markets. Concomitantly, a brewing sovereign crisis in Greece has highlighted serious problems of overleverage in Portugal, Spain and Italy. On this week’s podcast, Business Monitor [Read more...]
Brazil has just hosted the second annual BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) summit on April 15-16, but I think there are good reasons to doubt how much strength this grouping actually has in terms of changing the world – at least in a collective fashion. Below, I list some thoughts about BRICs as a concept:
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Political risk is a perennial concern for foreign investors in Turkey, and a frequent cause of volatility on the Istanbul markets. Yet despite threats of military coups, an on-again off-again EU accession process, deep social tensions between secularist and moderate Islamist institutions, and a protracted ethnic Kurdish insurgency, the Turkish economy and financial markets have [Read more...]
The fixed income investment community has been shaken up by growing concerns over Greece’s creditworthiness, which appear to be spreading like a bush fire across eurozone peripheral states. While concerns over significant sovereign credit risk are currently limited to the euro area and Dubai, my colleagues at BMI believe that Latin American government credit, too, [Read more...]
Emerging European financial markets were generally quiet over the holiday period, as was to be expected, though Turkish stocks chose to buck the trend in style. The benchmark ISE-100 equity index surged to a 12-month high on the final trading day of the year (December 31), ending 2009 at 52,825. The resulting strong monthly close, [Read more...]
A region which traditionally received only little coverage is being considered an option by an increasing number of foreign investors. Richard Hamilton, BMI’s Latin America analyst, explains why interest in the region is growing, and whether Central America should be considered a viable option for foreign investors.
Having recently returned from a week-long holiday in the Latvian Baltic sea resort of Jurmala, I felt the stark contrast between a wonderful summer holiday destination and the signs of an epic economic crisis. On the one hand I was impressed at the hospitality and pleasantness of this tiny Baltic Sea town, 20km from the [Read more...]
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