Forget about all the shoes, toys and other exports. China may soon have another thing to offer the world: a recession. That is the prediction from Ruchir Sharma, head of emerging markets at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, who says a continuation of China’s slowdown in the next years may drag global economic growth below 2 percent, […]
For much of the past decade, the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka was more or less a family business — one that happened to be run on an island just 22 miles off the coast of the second-largest country in the world and astride a key shipping lane to the largest. By one estimate, former […]
In the wee hours of Monday morning, after a marathon 17-hour session, Greece finally agreed to a deal with the euro zone that would give it enough cash to start reopening its shuttered banks, pull it out of arrears, and stave off its exit from the euro. In some ways this deal (or any deal) might […]
The BRICS grouping—comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—is as contentious as it is misunderstood. Skeptics dismiss the BRICS out of hand, arguing that the coalition is all talk and no action. Enthusiasts, on the other hand, maintain that the BRICS portend a new global pecking order—one in which the emerging economies, led by […]
China has been making major efforts to increase its ability to influence other countries without force or coercion. In 2007, then-President Hu Jintao told the Communist Party that the country needed to increase its soft power; President Xi Jinping repeated the same message last year. They know that, for a country like China, whose growing […]
In China, the invisible hand of the market sometimes needs help from the iron fist of the state. That’s certainly true after a meltdown vaporized $3.5 trillion in the value of shares traded on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges. Read Here – Bloomberg China Tries Japan’s Approach to a Stock Bubble – Bloomberg View
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Central Asian Republics has evoked much interest in India. Civilisational links and cultural commonalities apart, the prospect of a seat for India at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation high table does warrants excitement. After all, being at the high table is protection against ending up on the menu. Jokes apart, what […]
The Sri Lankan government has cleared one more Chinese project – the expressway linking the southern port city of Hambantota with Matara, which will be the second phase of the previous Chinese-funded project that connects Matara with Colombo. This was one of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s pet projects – connecting his hometown with the capital. […]
That President Hassan Rouhani has staked his political fortunes on the nuclear talks is well-known in Iran. His optimism for a nuclear deal with the six world powers and the subsequent removal of international sanctions and end to Iran’s isolation is so high that he has even, somewhat controversially, linked the nuclear deal to solving Iran’s water crisis. […]
The conclusion of a nuclear agreement with Iran, should it happen, will mark only the start of negotiations at home for the White House as it has begun the offensive to sell the deal to a cynical Congress. Read Here – The Irish Times
