Sovereign Stabilization Funds and the End of the Commodities Super-cycle: What are the Challenges?

On December 11, 2019, the Indian Parliament approved the Citizenship Amendment Act amending the Citizenship Act of 1955. The finalized Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) makes foreign undocumented migrants and religious refugees (including Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians) from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan eligible for Indian citizenship, but not if they are Muslim. As many as 125 lawmakers voted in the favour of the act whilst 99 members voted against it ...

The global reach of COVID-19 is now clear. In a short time, country after country has suffered outbreaks of the new coronavirus, with each facing a three-fold shock: epidemiologic, economic, and financial. In addition to dealing with their own local coronavirus outbreaks, emerging market and developing countries have faced additional shocks from abroad. Flattening pandemic curves saves lives The coronavirus crisis is primarily a public health issue, demanding containment policies ...

Using a Structural vector auto-regression analysis, this paper attempts to answer the question of the feasibility of a currency union in the Economic community of West African states (ECOWAS). The study focuses on a particular criterion of the theory of optimum currency area (OCA) i.e. the similarity of business cycles. The main results suggest important discrepancies between countries that are already within the WAEMU (CFA Franc) arrangement and countries that have their own arrang ...

His delicate, almost floating touches created a hitherto unseen aesthetic perfection: the enigmatic face the Mona Lisa. The mysterious woman, captured on a panel of poplar wood, is the work of a genius, possibly one of the greatest minds in human history: Leonardo da Vinci. But Da Vinci also had another obsession: the art of war. In a letter to the court of Ludovico Sforza, then ruler of Milan, the celebrated maestro wrote, “I will make covered vehicles, safe and unassailable which ...

La crise engendrée par le COVID-19 a bouleversé l’ordre de l’économie mondiale. Elle montre à quel point les économies sont très interdépendantes, vulnérables et ne sont pas préparées à faire face à un choc sanitaire de cette ampleur. Même les pays développés et les grandes puissances économiques mondiales en ont été très négativement impactés. Cependant, l’impact de cette pandémie est à géométrie variable et son issue dépendra de la capacité des Etats à réagir et à y faire face le ...

The Mara Group, producer of the Mara smartphone, has set up manufacturing facilities in two key strategic countries, Rwanda and South Africa, with a total estimated investment of $100 million. On the back of political shifts in South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa embarked on an investment drive, announced in his state of the nation address in 2018. This was followed up with an investment conference, at which Ashish Thakkar, CEO of Mara Group, announced a $100 million investment ...

On January 24, 2020, the Bana, a freighter, left the Turkish port of Mersin. Its destination was the Tunisian harbor of Gabes. It was a routine trip, until its transponder was deactivated and the ship disappeared from the radar. No mayday was received; the boat vanished like a ghost. Four days later a satellite observed three dots approaching Tripoli, Libya and when the images were enlarged, it became clear that the Bana was on a secret mission, since she was shadowed by two Turkish ...

The Multidimensional Poverty Index provided for the UNDP (United Nations Developed Program) looks beyond monetary income and shows how poverty is the experience of multiple and simultaneous deprivations. People can fall behind in terms of health, education, and living standards, with challenges including lack of access to drinking water, sanitation, adequate nutrition, or primary education. Those who are deprived of at least one third of the index’s components are classified as mult ...

« Economists have a bad track record in predictions, so I will not try my hand at predicting the effect of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) on the global financial system or the global economy. » Thorsten Beck */ /*-->*/ /*-->*/ Comme le dit si bien Thorsten Beck, il serait illusoire de prévoir à ce stade, compte tenu de l’information disponible, un impact chiffré de la crise sur l’économie. A l’issue de son Conseil du17 mars 2020, Bank Al-Maghrib a annoncé une baisse du taux d ...