Current account imbalances have been blamed in the past for creating external vulnerabilities that can lead to financial crises. In the run-up to the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008, for example, the large current account deficits of the US—matched…
The world’s leaders and their representatives meet in Dubai in December to revisit the climate challenge. Information to facilitate those discussions is not wanting. A plethora of reports, from official and private sources, covering diverse issues have been released in…
It has long been known that the very wealthy are able to shift their assets abroad and stash them away in tax havens and other jurisdictions. There are various reasons for doing this: to hide ill-gotten gains, to avoid or…
Early October provided yet more evidence of the breakdown of multilateralism and the lack of international commitment from countries, to work together to address shared national challenges. The 2023 pledging Conference for the second replenishment of the Green Climate Fund,…
The latest Annual Report of the Periodic Labour Force Survey, covering July 2022 to June 2023, has some interesting results. On the face of it, there seems to be some improvement in the labour market, as expressed in the declining…
Unlike many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), the Indian economy is not characterised by external debt stress or distress that could lead to default. It does record almost consistent current account deficits on the balance of payments, but these are…
The sovereign debt crises confronting many low and middle income countries is now common knowledge and is frequently referred to by global policy makers—even though remarkably little is being done by the international powers-that-be to resolve these crises. The general…
As news broke that the monsoon month August was the driest since 1901, when records began to be kept, fears of inflation gathered strength. At 161.7 mm across the country, rainfall that month was well below the previous record low…
The dramatic increase in global oil and food prices from the start of the Ukraine War did not reflect real global supply shortages or demand-supply imbalances. Rather, it reflected the impact of market concentration and financial activity in commodity futures…
On July 14 this year, the shaky government of a debt-stressed Pakistan, won itself a surprising reprieve. The country had experienced a collapse in foreign reserves to less than one month worth of imports and was on the verge of…
