Latin America Economics Weekly China-Panama rupture, precious metals & Lat Am The Panamanian Supreme Court’s decision to annul the licences that allowed a Hong Kong based firm to operate in the Panama Canal has been met with a backlash from China. While it’s not clear if China... 6th February 2026 · 5 mins read
Commodities Weekly Sizing up the oil risk premium Estimating the oil market risk premium is more art than science, but our sense is that it is currently in the region of $5-8pb. Looking ahead, were the US to conduct limited military strikes against... 6th February 2026 · 4 mins read
Africa Economics Update SA and the bursting of the precious metals bubble We think that the recent drop in precious metals prices has further to run, and the recent outperformance in South Africa’s financial markets has come to an end. But on the macro side, South Africa’s... 6th February 2026 · 4 mins read
Commodities Update Critical mineral stockpiles are a symptom of fracturing The stockpiling of critical minerals is an age-old response to a modern-day problem posed by China’s dominance over the supply of rare earths and other raw materials. That said, “Project Vault” will... 5th February 2026 · 4 mins read
Commodities Chart Pack Commodities Chart Pack (Feb. 2026) Geopolitical risk and speculation lifting prices for now The sharp rise and fall in precious metals prices, which appeared to be driven somewhat by leveraged investors, has all the hallmarks of a... 5th February 2026 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Weekly US-Iran talks, Qatar’s LNG push, Saudi opens up The US and Iran enter negotiations tomorrow, but relations between the two are fragile and there's a high risk that talks break down, which could result in fresh US military strikes on Iran. Elsewhere... 5th February 2026 · 7 mins read
Commodities Update Oil market implications of US-India rapprochement Warming US-India relations, centred around an agreement for India to purchase less Russian oil, risks tightening the global oil market. However, we aren’t convinced that India will curtail imports... 4th February 2026 · 3 mins read
Commodities Update Could SPR demand absorb Venezuelan oil imports? The potential for Venezuelan oil to be used, albeit indirectly, to refill the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve over the coming years gives us even more confidence in our view that a boost to US imports... 4th February 2026 · 3 mins read
Commodities Update Six key questions about the sell-off in precious metals We recently hosted a Drop-In on the sell-off in gold and other precious metals. This Update answers six key questions on topics such as the role of leverage in driving prices, the macroeconomic and... 3rd February 2026 · 4 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Update Saudi’s two-speed economy to soften in 2026 Saudi Arabia’s economy strengthened over the course of 2025 as the resumption of oil output hikes fuelled growth. But as that boost starts to fade and fiscal consolidation is ramped up against the... 2nd February 2026 · 3 mins read
Commodities Weekly Geopolitical risks mask a fundamentally bearish oil market The building tensions between Iran and the US have driven Brent crude prices to a six-month high. That said, we think that the historical example of last year’s 12-day war, and a well-supplied oil... 30th January 2026 · 4 mins read
Commodities Update The higher gold goes, the harder it could fall It’s notoriously hard to objectively value gold, and it’s plausible that the rapid ascent in gold prices could reflect a paradigm shift in demand. In fact, if gold prices were to follow the trajectory... 30th January 2026 · 5 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Update What if the US strikes Iran (again)? Fresh strikes by the US on Iran would, coming in the wake of recent protests in the country, raise the chances of some form of regime change which could eventually pave the way for Iran’s possible... 29th January 2026 · 4 mins read
Commodities Update How to make sense of the industrial metals rally The mayhem in precious metals markets has captured the majority of headlines, but several industrial metals prices have increased by a lot too. We are sceptical that near-term fundamentals justify... 28th January 2026 · 3 mins read
Africa Chart Pack Africa Chart Pack (Jan. 26) Sub-Saharan Africa is entering one of its best periods of growth since the 2010s, propelled by better terms of trade, low inflation and loose monetary policy. Our forecasts for most countries –... 27th January 2026 · 0 mins read
Commodities Weekly The Arctic strikes back? In a week dominated by President Trump’s pursuit of Greenland, it is perhaps ironic that an anticipated blast of cold air from the Arctic has sent the price of natural gas in the US soaring. Henry Hub... 23rd January 2026 · 4 mins read
