Tag "covid-19"
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EU Prime Ministers Beat a Path to The Hague
This month, The Hague has become the destiny of choice for EU prime ministers and presidents embarking on a pilgrimage to placate, woo, mollify or pay homage to Saint Mark – the self-anointed patron of the frugal. In his impressively
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UNCTAD: COVID-19 Has Hurt Global Investment but the Recovery Offers the Chance to Build a More Sustainable Economy
The crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted investment and trade flows, but it arrives on top of existing challenges to the system of international production and trade. Flows of cross-border investment in physical productive assets stopped growing
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World Bank Vice President for Europe and Central Asia: Interview with Anna Bjerde
Congratulations with your Mayday promotion as World Bank Vice President for Europe and Central Asia. Are you excited to lead the World Bank’s strategic, analytical, operational and knowledge work in the region? Thank you! I am delighted to be returning
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EY on COVID-19 Pandemic: An Opportunity for Reinvention of Family Enterprises
Family businesses and SMEs face great challenges, as well as personal and financial losses, in these turbulent times. On the flip side of the coin, the COVID-19 pandemic can also be seen as an opportunity to rethink business models and
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Saying No to China
What had originally been announced as a series of conferences followed by a high profile summit in Leipzig to seal and celebrate a landmark investment agreement between the European Union and China, was downgraded to an online chat between EU
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South Africa and the Struggle for Reform
Widely considered a bellwether for emerging market sentiment, South Africa’s rand has been on a dizzying rollercoaster ride, seesawing on currency markets as traders try to match fact with perception and decipher the country’s true predicament. On 11 June, the
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Japan Opens the Money Spigot
Once upon a time, Japan was said to pose a menace to the economic hegemony of the industrialised countries of the West. Current US criticism of Chinese trade practices and currency manipulation echo the acerbic disputes between Washington and Tokyo
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Europe: Fig Leaves to Save Spain and Italy
Looking to score without breaking a sweat, European politicians of almost every ideological persuasion often turn on ‘Brussels’, assigning blame to the union for every conceivable domestic ill and castigating it for their own failings. Unable to put up a
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Austerity Arrives in the Kingdom
For the first time in living memory, the Saudi government has embarked on a major austerity drive. In early June, state workers saw their generous cost-of-living allowance abruptly cancelled. Capital expenditure on iconic mega projects has been put on hold
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Hold the Bulls: US Recovery Marred by Uncertainty
In early June, the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research formally declared a recession – the first since 2009. The US economy reached its apex in February and all but imploded in the weeks and
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