Winston Churchill once famously described the intentions of Russia as “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma”. That was said in 1939 just before the Second World War, but such a description would be quite apt today to…
Financial markets in the so-called ‘emerging economies’ are in turmoil. At the end of May 2022, the Financial Times reported that the return delivered by emerging market (EM) sovereign bonds was around minus 15 per cent for 2022, the worst…
The ongoing political and economic turmoil in Sri Lanka is clearly the worst crisis the country has faced since its Independence. Yet while Sri Lanka’s current difficulties are clearly extreme, it is by no means alone among developing countries, several…
The second half of June saw the rupee’s value touching record lows below 78 to the US dollar. But this absolute low should not take away from the long term decline the rupee has been experiencing. If we consider the…
The global food crisis has now grown to such proportions that everyone is talking about it (even though world leaders are doing relatively little about it). It has become an article of faith to blame the war in Ukraine for…
Exuding optimism at a time when most indicators point to economic stress across the world, India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry put out a press release on 20 May celebrating what it describes as the “highest annual FDI (foreign direct…
As the earth warms up to increasingly unlivable temperatures, it is clear that fossil fuel energy sources will have to be abandoned as fast as possible, even though most governments today are extraordinarily slow to move decisively on this. Clearly,…
The contours of the economic, political and humanitarian crises that Sri Lanka currently faces are now well known. With limited economic diversification, it has for long been an open economy that has found it difficult to earn the foreign exchange…
The latest IPCC report makes it clear: the planet is now dangerously close to a tipping point and reliance on fossil fuels has to be drastically curtailed and even fully eliminated soon, to avoid catastrophic climate changes. Obviously, this urgent…
Global inflation, the launch of a monetary tightening cycle in the US with increased interest rates, depreciating exchange rates and the fall out of the war in Ukraine, are forcing many countries to borrow their way out of balance of…
