It has been six months since popular uprisings toppled the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt, and set off a chain of events that brought civil war to Libya, and Syria and Yemen to the brink of collapse. In today’s podcast, Jean-Paul Pigat, Head of Middle East and North Africa Analysis, discusses where the region stands,… [Read more]
Just over a year since widespread political protests and social unrest crippled Bangkok and scared off tourists, Thailand is gearing up for crucial general elections on July 3rd. With only weeks to go, there remains much uncertainty over the elections, the outcome on which could go a long way to determine the country’s economic fortunes over the… [Read more]
Monday’s twin bombings in the Moscow Metro demonstrate that the war in the North Caucasus is neither over nor just a conflict in a peripheral part of Russia. The Moscow attacks came just four months after the Moscow-St Petersburg railway was bombed, showing that Islamist terrorists are capable of carrying out their threats to take… [Read more]
There’s been renewed speculation about the 2012 Russian presidential election of late, with both incumbent Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin both hinting that they could run. If both do so, then there could be a genuinely competitive race for the first time since 1996. The Medvedev-Putin double-act was always a bit awkward. Putin… [Read more]
‘Change’ is a powerful message. Barack Obama made this his main slogan in his 2008 campaign. Rocky Balboa proclaimed this to the Soviet Politburo at the end of Rocky IV. UK girl band Sugababes called their fifth album Change. Now, even Japan has opted for change, after 54 years of rule by the Liberal Democratic… [Read more]
One interesting aspect of the current global economic funk is the speed at which China has gone from desperately trying to cool its economy from overheating to desperately trying to boost it. We have already seen aggressive rate cuts, a mammoth fiscal stimulus package, and a halt – indeed, mild reversal – in the rise… [Read more]
The Brazilian government and the Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) have presented a comprehensive list of measures to tackle the effects of the credit crunch and clogged up money markets. The extent and size of these measures suggest that policymakers in Brazil have recognised the severity of the crisis and are determined to address these… [Read more]
