Category: Middle East / Asia

Lebanon has long swept its challenges under the rug and celebrated its successes. But the explosion back on August 4th in the port area of Beirut—the capital of Lebanon—, in a figurative and physical sense, unveiled a tomb of hidden treasures and misfortunes of years past. Yet the tragedy of the blast was it not only took so many lives, but its revelations of treasures and misfortunes were not exactly new…

The distribution of vaccines is changing the economic outlook in 2021 with most politicians and investors forecasting a continued recovery. Yet the political and economic risks that preceded the covid-19 pandemic remain alongside the lockdown measures necessary to combat the virus. The year will be turbulent for some countries as public confidence and investor sentiment vacillates with optimism and skepticism on vaccine acceptance rates and economic output numbers. Several countries are likely to be bellwethers for the markets, or at least, provide some directional insight on the global economy’s recovery…

The month of November was positive. Markets trended upward with justification in some situations and bet on pure hope in other situations. December may provide a reversion to the mean. That said, Uzbekistan, Turkey, and Ukraine will be three markets to watch…

Middle East sovereign debt levels are rising, but so what? The question of whether the debt levels are sustainable is hard to answer…

Jio may be overhyping the economic success in India. But covid-19 is surely overshadowing the greater economic troubles for India. The silver lining of covid-19 is the opportunity for leadership to make comprehensive economic reforms…

Now, with victory in hand, the Rajapaksa brothers, Gotabaya and Mahinda, must prove that they can re-claim Sri Lanka’s magic of the last decade…the landslide election victory did not miraculously change the country’s financial and economic situation overnight…

Like a prized fighter, Turkey and President Erdoğan fight on…

Many observers go as far criticising many Arab states for building asymmetrical relationships, where African states are acting on behalf of Arab states simply for large sums of cash. There is some truth in that thinking. But the reality is that policy-makers in African countries have to make their own policy decisions and govern their own borders…