Porky pong gets Chile in a stink
The Chilean government has declared a health emergency and temporarily shut down the world’s biggest pig farm.
Why? Locals raised a stink – about the stink. Continue reading »
Bahrain: F1 can’t hide stalled reforms
Bahrain, the Arab spring’s forgotten revolt, had fallen off the radar of the fickle global media. But thanks to Formula 1, the world has been at least been reminded this weekend of Bahrain’s scorched social fabric.
Now, 14 months since the island was rocked by the worst unrest in its history, the future of Bahrain’s economy also remains unclear. Continue reading »
Indonesia: fuel subsidy cut runs into protest and politics
By Sarah Mishkin and Taufan Hidayat
Violent protests this week have pushed Indonesia’s opposition to reject the government’s plan to cut spending on subsidising fuel.
The subsidies accounted for 20 per cent of government total spending last year, and analysts have said that cutting is needed if the government wants to limit its deficit and make room for investing in long-term growth projects. But pushing the cuts though might be less simple than first thought. Continue reading »
Panama: growing up, growing angry
Panama City has been transformed in recent years into a “Dubai of the Americas”, complete with a Trump Tower – a real-estate boom fuelled by double-digit growth.
But the go-go economic policy of the nation’s president, Ricardo Martinelli, a supermarket tycoon, has suddenly hit trouble in the face of protests. Continue reading »
Russia: protesters and investors, interests aligned
There was a whiff of revolution and money in the air on Thursday as foreign investors flocked to the fifth annual Troika Dialog investment forum in Moscow, filling the city’s international house of music to the rafters to hear Vladimir Putin speak.
Just two days before opposition forces plan to take to the streets for a new protest against alleged vote rigging and Putin’s planned return to the presidency, Putin attempted to give his usual command performance, touting the economy’s 4.3 per cent growth and promising an improved legal and regulatory environment for investors. Continue reading »
Romania: Boc snowed under
Wherever it turns, the Romanian government seems to run into trouble. On Friday, it was the constitutional court rejecting plans to delay local elections by a few months and hold them on the same day as parliamentary polls due in November.
Prime minister Emil Boc hoped postponing the local elections might win a bit more time for the benefits of his tough IMF-backed austerity programme to come through, and recent public protests to lose momentum.
But the judges said no. So Boc’s only relief is the distraction generated by the snowstorms that have this week swept Romania, taking the edge off the anti-government demonstrations. But the snows will melt – the anti-government sentiment probably won’t. Continue reading »
Nigerian strikes: counting the cost
It was always going to be controversial. Removing Nigeria’s fuel subsidy sparked the predicted protests, violence and strikes. But what has it cost the country financially?
Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics has released its estimate, and it’s a lot. For six days of strikes: N207.4bn, or $1.3bn, the equivalent of around 0.6 per cent of 2010′s GDP. Continue reading »
Egypt: resilient tourists wanted
Just under a year ago, Vladimir Putin quipped about the resilience of his people noting that Russian tourists continued to head for Egypt even as revolutionary turmoil gripped the country and other foreign nationals fled.
Putin understands how to talk his people up. However, do the numbers bear him out? And how is Egyptian tourism faring? Continue reading »
People power! Mining protests spread to Argentina
Argentina is striving to attract foreign investment and its mineral potential – in mining, and energy – offer attractive possibilities. But a social conflict playing out in the northwestern province of La Rioja could have be a taste of things to come as environmentalists and increasingly local communities seek to halt extractive projects that could bring in millions in investment but, they say, at too high a price for their livelihoods. Continue reading »
Nigeria: truce in fuel price dispute
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday partly reduced the recent fuel price rise (after the subsidy removal) that sparked violent protests across the country and pushed up global oil prices.
But with the cut falling short of trade union leaders’ demands for a full reversal of the increase in government-subsidised prices, the president and the unions were set for further difficult negotiations. Continue reading »
Nigeria: analysts sound the alarm
Nigeria’s nationwide strikes are going strong for a fourth day – and as oil workers threaten to shut down production from Sunday, investors in Africa’s most populous country should be wary.
That, at least, is the view of Helima Croft and other analysts at Barclays Capital. Violence is not a new phenomenon in Nigeria, they say – but this time, Nigeria faces twin threats: the mass protests sparked by the withdrawal of a fuel subsidy at the start of the year, and the rise in casualties of religious conflict over the past week. Taken together, doubts must be raised about the country’s political stability. Continue reading »
Nigeria: so long to the fuel subsidy
After a long, loud build-up Nigeria’s battle of the fuel subsidy got serious over a very quiet New Year’s weekend. If the government had hoped a muted announcement would lead to a muted reaction they were, to put it mildly, disappointed.
The removal of the subsidy led to a doubling of fuel prices on Monday morning, according to Reuters, and an unsurprisingly furious reaction from Nigerians for whom the subsidy had represented one of the few tangible benefits they received as citizens of Africa’s largest crude-oil producer. Continue reading »
Protests shouldn’t scare investors
Momentum is building behind another big anti-Kremlin protest on Saturday – despite the authorities’ dirty tricks against opposition leaders. By mid-Wednesday, more than 36,000 people had clicked on a Facebook page to indicate they were going (8,000 more say “maybe”), and 10,000 on the Russian site VKontakte.
With the protest occurring on Christmas Eve, at least in the western calendar (though not in Orthodox Russia), when other news tends to be scarce, it will certainly be prominent in TV news bulletins. How rattled should investors be? Continue reading »
[video] Defiant mood in Wukan
As the stalemate between the residents of Wukan village and the Chinese government continues, Jamil Anderlini reports from the rural community that dared to challenge the rule of the Communist party.
Peru: Humala strikes back
Peru’s president Ollanta Humala has thumbed his nose at the leftists who helped sweep him to power this week with a cabinet reshuffle and a crackdown on protestors opposing the $4.8bn Conga gold and copper mine.
The former lieutenant-colonel, who once called Venezuela’s radical leftist president Hugo Chavez a close ally, has put his old army training officer in the prime minister’s chair.
Investors have reacted positively to the changes, but what really matters is whether Humala can tackle social protests – one of the biggest investor risks in Peru – any better than his predecessor, Alan García. Continue reading »
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