By Sourajit Aiyer
It is often said that money makes the world go round. Nowhere is this more ingrained than in the battles for oil, power and arms. The news of Saudi Arabia and its key allies severing connections with Qatar following the ongoing rift between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members shocked the world. Here are three theories about this issue.
The Goldilocks scenario about the lower price of oil fuelling an economic boom has a few big holes, mainly when it comes to emerging markets.
By: Sourajit Aiyer
Indian businesses are going international, but Chinese companies are beating them in cracking new opportunities. Nowhere is this more etched than in sectors which require significant long-term funding – like infrastructure and engineering.
By Sourajit Aiyer
The current economic slowdown in India is not just an aftereffect of the financial crisis of 2007. A lot is written of how China and India received only minor bruises from that crisis due to certain structural patterns in which they had opened up their economies in the last two decades. Conversely, many advanced economies caught a cold when America sneezed.
If capital inflows to two Middle Eastern countries slow down, they could come under pressure to devalue, an emerging markets analyst warned.
The price of oil is already very high by historical standards, with Brent staying above $100 per barrel because of tensions in the Middle East and uncertainties created by the Arab Spring, Tom Pugh, commodities analyst at Capital Economics, said.
But growing supply and relatively slow demand is likely to push oil prices lower over the next five to 10 years, he wrote in a market note.
Turkey, Argentina, India, Egypt and Vietnam are the five emerging markets where risk is highest, according to a new E&Y report.
The consultancy looked at 25 countries and drew up a “heatmap of vulnerability,” ranking each country under seven indicators of risk.
The top 10 countries in terms of gender equality are mostly in Europe, with the northern European countries dominating the rankings, a report by the World Economic Forum shows.
Iceland has maintained its number one ranking for the fifth consecutive year. It was followed by Finland, Norway and Sweden, unchanged from last year.