Emerging Markets Economics Update Three market-moving EM elections to watch this year Elections in Brazil, Colombia and Hungary have the greatest potential to deliver large financial market moves this year. A shift towards more investor-friendly policymaking and improved fiscal... 28th January 2026 · 6 mins read
Europe Economics Focus How long will Portugal’s outperformance last? Portugal’s economy has benefited from a series of favourable developments in recent years, causing it to outperform most other euro-zone countries. We think this will continue over the next couple of... 15th January 2026 · 14 mins read
Europe Economics Focus Pensions & public finances: not just a French problem Far from being only a French problem, pensions will be a growing fiscal headache in all the major euro-zone countries in the coming decade as populations age. In France and Italy, this will add to the... 14th January 2026 · 24 mins read
Latin America Economics Update Venezuela’s potentially messy sovereign debt restructuring Venezuela faces one of the largest and most complex sovereign debt restructurings on record. A high debt ratio, a complex array of creditors, deep-rooted issues in Venezuela’s oil sector as well as... 13th January 2026 · 6 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Weekly Saudi borrowing plan, Bahrain’s austerity steps, KSA opens up Saudi Arabia kicked off 2026 with its first debt issuance of the year. Like last year, we think borrowing will exceed the authorities' plans as lower oil prices lead to a wider budget deficit and... 8th January 2026 · 7 mins read
Emerging Markets Economics Chart Pack Emerging Markets Chart Pack (December 2025) Our Emerging Markets Chart Pack has been updated with the latest data and our analysis of recent developments. EM GDP growth has held up well in 2025, but we expect it to slow to ~3.5% in 2026-27, the... 18th December 2025 · 1 min read
Africa Chart Pack Africa Chart Pack (Dec. '25) The macroeconomic backdrop has turned increasingly favourable and we expect Sub-Saharan Africa to enter its strongest period of growth in the coming years since the early 2010s. Our forecasts for most... 16th December 2025 · 0 mins read
Africa Economic Outlook SSA set for its strongest growth streak in over a decade The macroeconomic backdrop has turned increasingly favourable and we expect Sub-Saharan Africa to enter its strongest period of growth in the coming years since the early 2010s. Our forecasts for most... 15th December 2025 · 19 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Weekly Does Egypt need the IMF anyway? Oman gets an upgrade Egypt’s IMF review has coincided with a fresh impetus to jumpstart the lagging privatisation programme. But compared to just a couple of years ago, Egypt’s improving balance of payments position and... 11th December 2025 · 7 mins read
Europe Economics Focus ECB interest rates cuts doing little to boost growth Aside from the monetary loosening undertaken by the ECB at the beginning of the global financial crisis, its interest rate cuts from mid-2024 to mid-2025 were the deepest over a 12-month period in its... 1st December 2025 · 15 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Weekly Dubai real estate, Bahrain-Oman public finances, Egypt rates The surge in prices in Dubai’s real estate sector appears to be prompting developers to take on debt to finance new projects. This echoes events prior to the crisis in 2009, but a re-run seems... 27th November 2025 · 6 mins read
UK Economics Focus Autumn Budget - Markets give the smaller-than-expected Budget the thumbs up After months of speculation and an unprecedented leak of all the details an hour before the Chancellor’s speech, the financial markets have given the Budget the thumbs up and the Budget doesn’t... 26th November 2025 · 19 mins read
Emerging Markets Economics Update Default risks easing, but simmering fiscal problems in some EMs The incidence of sovereign debt distress has declined sharply across the EM world and is now back to pre-pandemic levels. But our EM Financial Risk Indicators suggest that several countries are still... 25th November 2025 · 3 mins read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Update Egypt’s balance sheet risks high but likely to recede Egypt’s devaluation and shift back towards macro orthodoxy 18 months ago have put the economy back on the path towards restoring macroeconomic stability. The situation is still very fragile – Egypt... 24th November 2025 · 4 mins read
