Emerging Markets News and Headlines
Emerging Markets News and Headlines
Emerging Markets Pulse
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EMAIL DIGESTS
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Every morning
Weekly
Tuesday recap
Nigeria’s states received a record N33.27 trillion from the Federation Account Allocation Committee between January and November 2025, far exceeding the N25.46 trillion allocated in 2024. Despite the surge, per‑capita spending on health and education remains dismally low, with implementation rates of only 62% and 67% respectively. Governors continue to prioritize visible infrastructure projects such as flyovers and stadiums over essential human‑capital services. The result is a widening gap between fiscal inflows and tangible improvements in citizens’ lives.
China and Nigeria celebrated 55 years of diplomatic ties, marking a shift toward deeper economic integration. The partnership, upgraded to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in September 2024, now emphasizes higher‑value trade and industrial transformation. A new Zero‑Tariff Agreement grants qualifying...
India’s alternative investment fund (AIF) sector has crossed the ₹15.05 lakh crore mark, underscoring rapid scale and emerging maturity. Equity‑oriented AIFs have delivered roughly 8.7 % alpha over the BSE Sensex across multiple cycles, highlighting consistent outperformance. Domestic investors now contribute about 55 %...
Nigeria’s indigenous oil producers are surviving on razor‑thin margins of $5‑7 per barrel despite crude prices hovering around $70. Production costs sit near $40 per barrel, but spiralling security expenses and operational losses from theft and pipeline vandalism push total...
China met its official 5.0% GDP target in 2025, largely on the back of robust export growth to Asia, Europe and Latin America. Manufacturing investment, particularly in electric vehicles and electronics, remained resilient, while overall fixed‑asset investment fell 3.8% and...
State Street SPDR Portfolio Emerging Markets ETF (SPEM) remains a buy, backed by strong technical momentum, low valuation and a 0.07% expense ratio. The fund holds $16.7 billion in assets, offers a 2.58% dividend yield and provides broad EM exposure. Its...
In late 2025 President Vladimir Putin announced Russia’s willingness to build a small modular reactor (SMR) in Kyrgyzstan, aiming to address the country’s chronic electricity shortages. Kyrgyzstan relies on over 90% hydropower, making its grid vulnerable to droughts and aging...
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Kazakh President Kassym‑Jomart Tokayev are returning to Washington for the inaugural Trump‑administered Board of Peace, joining Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and possibly Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev. The gathering will focus on Gaza’s reconstruction while offering a...
The Bocconi Institute proposes six pragmatic reforms to close Europe’s “scale‑up gap” and boost venture‑capital financing for innovative firms. Using Dealroom data on 64,500 EU start‑ups, the report shows that VC investment in scale‑ups is under 10% of U.S. levels...
Kalshi, a CFTC‑approved designated contract market, operates a quote‑driven prediction platform where makers post offers and takers accept them. An analysis of over 300,000 contracts shows that prices generally track event probabilities but suffer a pronounced favourite‑longshot bias, with cheap...
Ukraine granted its first defense export permits in February 2026, allowing domestic defense‑tech firms to sell abroad as the government prepares ten export centers across Europe. The sector, proven in combat with rapid development cycles, now faces the need to...
The Marketing‑Interactive team is launching Expand 2026, a one‑day, invitation‑only forum in Sydney on July 29 aimed at senior Australian brand leaders. The event will explore how growth is increasingly driven by Asia‑Pacific trends such as social commerce, super‑apps, and creator‑led retail....
U.S.‑brokered peace talks aim to end the Ukraine war by early summer, but analysts warn that a deal lacking robust security guarantees could free Russian forces to pursue expansion in the South Caucasus and Central Asia. Recent recordings and leaked...
Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani arrived in Caracas, marking his first visit since the U.S. raid that ousted President Nicolás Maduro. The trip focuses on strengthening bilateral ties, including agriculture and investment, while Qatar positions...
The inaugural African Travel Commission (ATC) Summit in Lagos called for urgent reforms to visa policies, border regulations, and regional aviation to unlock Africa’s tourism potential. Delegates noted tourism generated roughly $225 billion in GDP and supported 30 million jobs in 2025,...
The Department of Expenditure has urged Indian states to fast‑track pending proposals under the Special Assistance to States for Capital Expenditure (SASCI) scheme as the March 31 deadline approaches. To date, ₹1.04 lakh crore has been released, and the FY26 Union Budget has...
India’s demographic and economic potential remains strong, but political dysfunction and empty rhetoric are eroding its long‑term outlook. The country suffers from unreliable statistics, a slowdown in innovation, and worsening air quality, all signs of institutional decay. Author Kaushik Basu’s...
The Basel III regulatory package, delayed to a full 2027 rollout, tightens capital quality, leverage and liquidity requirements for banks worldwide. African banks risk higher capital costs because their sovereign debt is risk‑weighted more heavily, potentially limiting credit to the...
Global demand for copper, driven by AI, renewable energy and electric vehicles, is spurring a rapid expansion of Zambia’s mining sector. Since 2022, more than $12 billion has been poured into the industry, lifting 2024 output by roughly eight percent to...
Private participation in infrastructure across the Global South reached $100 billion in 2024, a 20% rise over the previous five‑year average. The article highlights India’s PPP surge, which drove infrastructure credit to over 15% of bank lending but also triggered an...
The royalist‑conservative Bhumjaithai Party has captured a decisive parliamentary majority, reinforced by the military and judiciary, positioning it to govern Thailand for the next four years. Its victory ends a 26‑year period marked by street protests, coups, and judicial interventions,...
Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trade agenda, saying it marks a decisive break from the Congress era of policy paralysis. He highlighted nine free‑trade agreements signed since 2014 that give India preferential access to 38 developed economies and...
Rwanda’s mineral exports jumped 46.2% in 2025, driven by soaring tin, tungsten and tantalum prices and increased mechanised mining. The surge helped narrow the country’s trade deficit from $3 billion to $2.7 billion, with raw tin even achieving a positive balance with...
Somalia has been granted official authorization to adopt and print the East African Community (EAC) e‑Passport, a key step in its regional integration. The decision was handed to Somalia’s Minister of Internal Security and the Director‑General of Immigration in Dar...
India and the United States announced a trade deal that lowers Indian export tariffs from 25% to 18% and removes the extra 25% levy on Russian crude. In return, New Delhi has pledged to buy $500 billion worth of U.S. goods,...
India's National Highways Authority (NHAI) has been allocated Rs 12,357 crore for FY 2025‑26 to monetize highway assets, falling short of the Rs 15,000 crore budgeted amount. The agency plans to monetize 24 road assets covering 1,472 km, with Maharashtra receiving the highest number of projects....
The African Union’s 2019 African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was built on eight regional economic communities, yet integration progress remains sluggish. A new analysis identifies four core obstacles: lingering colonial dependencies, the predominance of informal cross‑border trade, the tendency...
A member of the Indian Rice Exporters Federation (IREF) has secured a contract to ship 5,000 tonnes of basmati rice to a United States buyer. The agreement arrives shortly after the India‑US trade pact lowered tariffs on Indian goods from 25% to...
India’s data‑centre market is expanding rapidly, with annual capacity additions of about 0.5 GW. Today, data centres already draw up to 15% of local grid capacity and could consume 30‑35% by 2030. Roughly one‑third of the power comes from renewable PPAs,...
The United Nations Command (UNC) and South Korea are locked in a legal dispute over who can approve access to the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). While the 1953 Armistice assigns entry authority to the UNC commander, Seoul’s National Assembly is...
India’s Shahpurkandi Dam is slated for commissioning by March 31, 2026, enabling the diversion of surplus Ravi River flows that previously entered Pakistan. The project will channel this water into irrigation schemes across Jammu’s Kathua and Samba districts and Punjab’s drought‑prone...
The United States condemned the 20‑year sentence handed to Hong Kong activist Jimmy Lai but its traditional punitive toolkit—sanctions and revoking Hong Kong’s special trade status—has done little to restore the city’s autonomy. Lawmakers are now proposing legislation that could...
The United States continues to dominate global growth, driven by an AI-fueled expansion, yet its flagship currency is unusually weak. Markets are now pricing U.S. policy uncertainty on par with economies that lack a reserve currency. Conflicting fiscal and monetary...
The African Union General Assembly endorsed AUDA‑NEPAD’s priority agenda for the acceleration phase of the Second Ten‑Year Implementation Plan of Agenda 2063, reaffirming its mandate across human capital, agriculture, climate resilience, health, industrialisation and infrastructure. It appointed Angola President João Manuel...
South Africa's overall unemployment rate slipped to 31.4% in the fourth quarter of 2025, down from 31.9% in the prior quarter and marking a second consecutive decline after a peak of 33.2% a year earlier. Employment rose by 44,000, reaching...
India, the world’s second‑largest crude‑steel producer, is pivoting toward the Middle East and Asian markets to cushion the impact of the European Union’s new carbon border adjustment tax. Roughly two‑thirds of its steel exports currently flow to Europe, where the...
Fund managers are at a five‑year high of bullishness, yet a record share warn that corporate America is overspending on capital expenditures amid uncertain returns. In Bank of America’s February survey of 162 managers, cash balances rose in February, signaling...
Thai banks’ non‑performing loan ratio slipped to 2.84% at December, down from 2.94% in September. Bank lending fell 1.1% in Q4 2025, marking the sixth straight quarter of contraction, driven by tighter credit to SMEs and consumers. Household debt remains...
U.S. companies are expanding nearshore hiring beyond software engineering to include sales, customer success, and support teams in Latin America. The customer‑success market is projected to reach $16.5 billion by 2033, while bilingual support job postings have risen 50% year‑over‑year. Talent...
India’s National Green Tribunal has approved the Rs 90,000‑crore Great Nicobar mega‑infrastructure project, clearing the way for a new International Container Transshipment Port at Galethea Bay. The first phase, slated for 2028, will handle over 4 million TEUs annually, with full capacity...
Kenyan e‑mobility startup Arc Ride has secured a $5 million equity commitment from the International Finance Corporation to fuel its Series A round and regional rollout. The funding will accelerate the deployment of battery‑swapping stations across East Africa, complementing earlier debt deals...
Indonesia has unveiled a US$762 million, 12.83 trillion‑rupiah stimulus aimed at bolstering Ramadan consumption. The package includes transport fare discounts of up to 30%, full‑fare ferry rides, and food parcels for low‑income families. Officials hope the measures will sustain mobility and purchasing...
China’s pharmaceutical sector is rapidly expanding, now generating its own GLP‑1 drugs alongside imported treatments. Novo Nordisk reported a 5% decline in Ozempic sales in China last year, the first dip since its 2021 launch, while sales grew elsewhere. The...
Asia‑Pacific private credit is entering a rapid expansion phase, with issuance projected to rise from $59 billion in 2024 to $92 billion by 2027. Industry leaders such as SC Lowy and Moody’s cite digitalization, the energy transition, and infrastructure needs as primary catalysts,...
India's currency in circulation reached a record Rs 40 lakh crore in January 2026, up 11.1% year‑on‑year, while the cash‑to‑GDP ratio slipped to about 11.2%, down from a pandemic peak of 14.4%. Over the past decade, cash holdings have risen from Rs 11.8 lakh crore in...
The National Bank of Ethiopia announced sweeping foreign‑exchange reforms, letting exporters retain 100% of their foreign‑currency earnings in designated accounts and permitting banks to issue payment cards linked to those accounts. The minimum $100 requirement for foreign‑exchange savings accounts has...
President Trump issued an executive order establishing an “America First” arms export strategy that rewards allies who invest in self‑defense, occupy critical geography, or contribute to U.S. economic security. The rubric pushes the Philippines, Singapore and Cambodia toward priority status...
Vietnam’s finance ministry reported a record $106.6 bn state budget revenue in 2025, surpassing forecasts by 35.5 %. The ministry issued 144 circulars—about a quarter of all national normative documents—while rolling out 28 laws and 86 decrees to support digital transformation, new...
Deloitte’s 2026 Global Automotive Consumer Study reveals that 95% of Indian car buyers are ready to pay extra for software‑defined vehicle (SDV) capabilities such as safety, security and health monitoring. The same respondents view SDVs as helpful (81%) and are...
Ukrainian and Russian delegations met in Geneva for U.S.-brokered talks, but expectations are low that they will produce a breakthrough before the war's fourth anniversary. Both sides remain entrenched on territorial demands, with Russia insisting on broader land claims and...
