Brazil: recession’s silver lining
So Brazil could be headed for a technical recession after it reported an admittedly very slight contraction in economic growth for the third quarter of 0.04 per cent compared with the previous three months. Is there any reason to panic? Continue reading »
Uruguay: testing the water
The Uruguayan government pushed forward with a new bond issue and swap facility on Tuesday despite roller-coaster markets. It’s a bold move, trying to persuade investors to sell dollar and euro denominated assets in exchange for local currency debt. So will it work? Continue reading »
Merck bets big on China
For all the news of growth slowdowns, drug companies still love EMs.
Merck, the US pharmaceutical giant, announced on Tuesday it is building a $1.5bn R&D facility in Beijing. The move follows comments on Monday from Miles White, Abbott chief executive, that companies need to “ride the wave of [EM] growth“. Continue reading »
Joe Leahy and Stefan Wagstyl look at Brazil’s economy and the wider EM growth picture here on FT.com.
Guest Post: Slovenia’s new ambitions
By Žiga Gregorincic
Slovenians like to think of themselves as people who can surprise the outside world; a small nation with a striking variety of landscapes, that can punch above its weight in terms of work rate, innovation and inventiveness.
On Sunday Slovenes surprised themselves, when, against all opinion poll predictions, they propelled Zoran Jankovic and his newly formed, centre-left Positive Slovenia party into pole position to head the next government with 28.5 per cent of the vote. Continue reading »
Poland & Slovakia: slowing not stopping
Expectations are being lowered in both Slovakia and Poland as the two central European countries adopt budgets for next year – but despite that, both nations are still likely to be among the fastest growing EU states next year. Continue reading »
Sub-Saharan Africa is set to weather the eurozone storm due to what is normally an economic weaknesses. For once, SSA’s relatively closed economies can count themselves lucky to be somewhat sheltered from global trade flows and the pain that more open economies may soon feel. Continue reading »
Russia: investors take fright
It hasn’t taken long for the implications of Sunday’s election setback for Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin to hit the financial markets.
Late on Tuesday Moscow time, Russian stocks and the rouble plunged after Putin said he would reshuffle the government, assuming he returns to the presidency in elections next next March. It was the first sign that the man who has run Russia for over a decade might have been rattled by the ruling United Russia party’s poor showing and the post-election street protests. Continue reading »
S Africa: the first sovereign sukuk outside the Muslim world?
South Africa is joining the select band of non-Muslim countries preparing to issue sovereign sukuk bonds. If all goes well it could even beat the others to the market, as those countries which have made similar moves have yet to actually launch their Islamic bonds.
The treasury on Monday invited banks to bid for advising on “the structuring and issuance of a government Islamic bond in the local and international markets”. And a spokesperson said that specific plans would be included in the funding proposals for the budget for the year starting next April. That sounds like it’s on for 2012. Continue reading »
Visa in Rwanda: a testing ground
Visa Inc is bringing cashless banking to Rwanda as it begins, a little belatedly, to target Africa’s largely unbanked emerging markets.
As Elizabeth Buse, Visa’s regional president, told beyondbrics: “Visa wanted to find somewhere we could test a model for operating in emerging markets”. And Rwanda really isn’t a bad choice. Continue reading »
[video] China’s censors join social media
As Beijing’s censors seek to strengthen control of the internet they are adding their own voice to the 300m users of Sina Weibo’s microblog. The Communist party is trying to sanitise the country’s social media and may be strangling China’s boisterous bloggers.
Russia: the gleam of high-tech
Russia’s efforts to boost its high-technology businesses moved forward on Tuesday with the announcement of a €295m joint venture in energy-saving glass between the state technology group Rusnano, foreign and local glass companies and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Continue reading »
Brazil must look to the future
By Márcio Garcia of PUC university, Rio de Janeiro
A decade ago, when Jim O’Neill coined the Bric acronym, he was harshly criticized for including Brazil. 2001 had been a bad year for the economy, with contagion from the Argentine crisis, our own energy crisis and political disarray in the governing coalition. When the central bank governor wrote to the finance minister to explain the breach of the upper limit of the inflation target band, he said inflation should trend down as shocks of the kind that hit Brazil that year were not to be expected in the future. Little did we know what was coming. Continue reading »
New York headlines
* S&P eurozone warning hobbles risk rally
* BP claims Halliburton destroyed evidence
* Euro debt crisis bites into price of cocoa
* Kremlin targeted by election protests Continue reading »
India’s dreams of web censorship
If you are offended by this post, please contact Kapil Sibal, India’s telecoms and IT minister, and he will make sure it is promptly taken down.
Actually, if Sibal has his way and you are offended by this post, the armies of people to be employed by internet companies operating in India to monitor their sites for potentially offensive material – whether it originates in India or abroad – will ensure that it is removed before it can even be published. And good luck to all of them with that. Continue reading »
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