Fireside Chat - Resisting the Fragmentation of the World Economy

In late September 2016, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) agreement to reduce crude supply was particularly telling. Combined with the improvement of some fundamentals, the agreement in principle created the conditions for a rebound in oil prices. Speculative dynamics to benefit from this upturn are however at work in a market context where production overcapacity remains present. The price recovery remains fragile and a paradigm shift will occur only if OPEC ...

U.S. assets reacted in a see-saw fashion to Donald Trump’s victory. Stock futures first dove deeply before climbing up to strong gains as investors developed a view on what kind of economic policy president-elect Trump is likely to pursue. They seem to be pricing in an expectation of higher growth and inflation, as well as an earlier Federal Reserve exit from ultra-low interest rates and from holding U$ 4.45 trillion of Treasury bonds. Shock waves hit international financial market ...

Africa is endowed with an abundance of renewable (forestry, water, wind, solar) and non-renewable (extractives, oil, gas, minerals) natural resources. It is estimated that the continent accounts for about 7% of global oil reserves, 7% of natural gas, 20% of land area, 9% of renewable water resources and 17% of forests. The continent is also home to the largest or second largest world reserves of bauxite, cobalt, industrial diamonds, manganese, phosphate rock and platinum group metal ...

Despite the gloomy tone of much discussion at the just-concluded IMF and World Bank annual meetings, the global economy is not in as bad shape as many think. The concerns about “secular stagnation” in advanced countries are also overplayed, and nor are developing countries directly exposed to such risks. By contrast, the pessimism about the prospects for MENA are unfortunately largely justified. Most importantly, at the global and at the MENA level the biggest concerns are not econo ...

Discussions around large current account imbalances among systemically relevant economies as a threat to the stability of the global economy faded out in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. More recently, some signs of a possible resurgence of rising imbalances have brought back attention to the issue. We argue here that, while not a threat to global financial stability, the resurgence of these imbalances reveals a sub-par performance of the global economy in terms of fore ...

Africa is the new frontier of a global energy transition during a century in which people are rightfully preoccupied by climate change and sustainable development. Energy access in Africa can be reached through unity within and across the continent. Eliminating the obstacles of the historical divisions of the continent – whether linguistic, economic, or geographic – would foment investments and development aid. The African Union would be best equipped to reallocate and redistribute ...

Morocco’s energy landscape has been changing rapidly over the past decades. Alongside its own population growth, rising access rates to electricity as well as high rates of rural-urban migration and rising living standards, Morocco’s domestic energy needs have risen sharply since the early 1990s. This policy paper explores Morocco’s long-term energy options, focusing on “green” energy solutions that lie within Morocco’s natural competitive advantage. Using Morocco’s strategic assets ...