“The world’s biggest money manager said Brazil must do all that it takes to maintain its investment-grade credit rating if it wants to remain an attractive destination for foreign capital,” Bloomberg reports. Although BlackRock claims it wants to promote Brazil, most of its clients refuse to allocate towards this destination as the country remains at … Continue reading
By Stratfor Global Intelligence The recent fluctuations in China’s currency typify the best and worst of a globalized world, where developments in one place can instantly change the political and financial calculations of governments in others. For most of human history, the communities, cultures and economies of the world existed independently of one another, separated … Continue reading
By Leslie Maasdorp Last month marked the official launch of the New Development Bank (NDB) in Shanghai. After the short-lived fanfare and excitement, the real work is now well under way to build, from humble beginnings, a new global development finance institution. The historical context that gave rise to the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and … Continue reading
By Andrés Velasco With the currencies of Malaysia, Indonesia, South Africa, Turkey, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, and Mexico hitting record lows recently, currency traders around the world are asking: How much further can emerging-market currencies weaken? The standard approach to answering this question takes a relatively normal base year and measures how much a country’s currency … Continue reading
By Alex Christensen China’s decision to let the yuan depreciate last week came for a number of reasons, including being a needed boost for Chinese export industries. But there are two sides to every currency swing, as the following countries are quickly learning. Did China devalue its currency or liberalize its currency market when it suddenly … Continue reading
Digital wallets: it seems that mature economies are starting the ditch the cold hard cash with Google Wallets and in the most recent months Apple Pay. But, what is happening in emerging economies like Brazil? The digital wallet concept is giving its first steps, however there is definitely a demand for it as Brazil achieved … Continue reading
Mexico and Colombia have now joined the “fragile five” grouping of emerging market (EM) economies, replacing India and Brazil, according to JPMorgan, the Financial Times (FT) reports. The two Latin American nations will now join Turkey, South Africa, and Indonesia to form the group of EM countries seen as the most overdependent on volatile foreign investment flows. In August 2013, as … Continue reading
“Brazil President Dilma Rousseff is poised to face another key test as allegations of corruption and incompetence swamp her government, and plummeting commodity prices sap the country’s economy,” Seeking Alpha reports. According to Bloomberg: As allegations of corruption and incompetence swamp Brazil’s government, and plummeting commodity prices sap its economy, hundreds of thousands of angry … Continue reading
Brazil, Russia, India and China have shown tremendous determination and co-operation on global issues in recent years. Their alliance epitomises south-south co-operation in the contemporary era. This is the notion of solidarity among developing countries through the exchange of goods, resources, technology and knowledge to meet their development goals. But what does this all mean … Continue reading
Moody’s rating agency, yesterday on August 11th, downgraded Brazil’s government bond rating to Baa3 from Baa2 (only one notch above a non-investment / speculative grade). Also the outlook on the rating has been changed from negative to stable. According to Bloomberg: The company’s decision to assign a stable outlook to Brazil’s rating, now at the lowest level … Continue reading