In August 2008, the Saudi Arabian stock market finally opened up to foreign investors. After a slow start, volumes are now tripling monthly, and investment banks are racing into the country to position themselves in the new market.

Dambisa Moyo, a former economist at Goldman Sachs and now independent consultant and author, says the US$1tn that the west has given to Africa in aid over the last 30 years has been wasted, and that the continent needs to move to a more capital markets approach.

Governments are set to raise over US$3tn in debt this year. But can they all meet their targets? Julian Evans reports.

The practice of contracting debt will almost infallibly be abused in every government. It would scarcely be more imprudent to give a prodigal son a credit in every banker’s shop in London, than to empower a statesman to draw bills, in this manner, upon posterity.”
 

The global financial crisis has shifted eastward, and the economies of central and eastern Europe are being ravaged by it. The question now is whether western banks with big CEE businesses will maintain them, or cut their losses. If they choose the latter, we may see a resurgence of xenophobic nationalism in eastern Europe. Julian Evans reports.  

Four of the top professionals in emerging markets private equity recently held a lively debate at PEI’s emerging markets forum in London, on the proposition ‘This house believes the western credit crisis is good for emerging markets private equity’.

Libya remains a puzzle. It has been in the headlines a lot recently, but it is no easier to assess, whether you are a potential investor or a potential exporter. Oliver Miles, former British ambassador to Libya, reports back from his recent visit to the country.

The Russian stock market has lost more than any market this year.  Now the real economy is being affected too.

The EBRD has been given new relevance by the economic crisis in eastern Europe. But is its free market philosophy out of date?

With breathtaking speed, Ukraine has gone from being one of Europe’s fastest-growing economies to a basket case. Is the US$16bn IMF bail-out enough to save it? Geoffrey Smith reports from Kiev.

Ukraine has come down to earth with an almighty bang – a textbook ‘hard landing’ that could be studied for years to come in universities and business schools as to how emerging market economies crash.

Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, former prime minister of Poland and the CEO of its second biggest bank, Bank Pekao, tells emeafinance his country is weathering the financial crisis relatively well.

The exponential growth shown by Angola’s financial sector in the post-civil war years is set to attain fresh heights, writes Kevin Godier

Angola, once one of the poorest countries in Africa, had the fastest-growing economy in the continent in 2007. Its economy has grown by an average of 10.6% annually for the past five years. 

Nassim Nicholas Taleb has over 20 years’ experience as a quant analyst and options trader at UBS, Credit Suisse, BNP Paribas and elsewhere. He is now advisor to Universa Investments, a hedge fund that is up 115% in the last two years.
He is also a world-famous philosopher, and author of the best-selling book, Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, which among other achievements predicted the collapse of Fannie Mae.  A Black Swan event is an event deemed highly improbable (like the probability of a swan being black), which can still occur and have an enormous impact on a system or market.  This is a talk he gave at the Hedge Funds World Conference in Zurich in December.