In Business Monitor Online and Emerging Markets Monitor magazine this week, my colleagues in BMI’s Asia team assess the region’s vulnerability to the ongoing fiscal crises in the eurozone and renewed economic weakness in the US. Essentially, there are five possible channels through which a eurozone crisis could impact Asia: 1) direct losses on exposure… [Read more]
A proposed bridge project to span the Gulf of Aqaba has the potential to change not only Egyptian and Saudi Arabian freight patterns but also those of the wider region and even the global liquid-bulk shipping sector. An official from the Saudi-Egyptian Business Council, Abdulah Dahlan, has been quoted as saying that fresh discussions are… [Read more]
Business Monitor International (BMI)’s Head of Middle East and North Africa Analysis, Jean-Paul Pigat, has just returned from a trip to the region, where he met top-level policymakers and investors. Earlier today, he spoke to the BBC’s World Business Report and discussed the implications of the crisis on investment into the region. Meanwhile, BMI will… [Read more]
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to Turkey earlier this month resulted in a ‘strategic partnership’ being signed, which is expected to lead to bilateral trade trebling to US$50bn by 2015, and to US$100bn by 2020. Although the trade relationship is benefiting China more right now, with Turkey running a US$11bn deficit in 2009, Chinese companies… [Read more]
Massive capital inflows across South America raise the spectre that authorities throughout the region are about to impose capital controls. Support for exporters appears to be the main reason for such intervention, but fears over a rapid withdrawal of ‘hot money’ in the event of another ‘double-dip’ also appear to be a factor. Risk Watchdog… [Read more]
Tensions have been rising in the South China Sea of late, and these are threatening to put strains on China’s relations with South East Asia and the US. Essentially, China has reiterated its long-standing claims over the whole of the South China Sea, including the Spratly and Paracel islands. Unsurprisingly, this sovereignty assertion is disputed… [Read more]
Through the second quarter of 2010, many analysts noted a divergence between seemingly positive microeconomic data and a macroeconomic outlook which was flagging a renewed downturn in growth. A seemingly strong recovery in container shipping in particular augured well for global demand and trade. On this week’s Business Monitor Podcast, BMI’s Head of Shipping and… [Read more]
