Former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won the second round of the presidential elections in Brazil on Sunday with 50.84% of the votes, compared to 49.16% for the current president, Jair Bolsonaro, with 99.10% of the ballot boxes counted. The leader of the Workers’ Party (PT), who governed between 2003 and 2010, will once again occupy the presidency of an extremely divided Brazil from 1 January 2023 and for…
Allianz GI | The market reaction to the conclusion of China’s Party Congress is telling. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (a gauge of key China stocks listed in Hong Kong) fell more than 7% on the first day of trading after the Congress. The CSI 300 (onshore China’s equivalent of the S&P 500) as well as the broader Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges saw a far more muted reaction.1…
IFO Insitute | The assessment of the political situation improved worldwide in the second quarter of 2022 according to the latest Economic Experts Survey (EES) – a global quarterly survey conducted by the IFO Institute and the Swiss Economic Policy Institute – which this time had 1,795 participants from 127 countries. At plus 10 points, they assessed political stability worldwide as significantly better than in the previous quarter. “Despite energy…
Crédito y Caución (Atradius) | In his second term, President Joko Widodo has continued to tackle economic reforms, such as infrastructure improvement to support the manufacturing sector and digital economy, reforms of the labour market and foreign investment rules. However, some key elements of his policy agenda remain contested due to vested interests. While Widodo has broad support in the House of Representatives, the wide range of political groups in…
Alicia García Herrero (Natixis) | US President Joe Biden’s long-awaited trip to Asia got off to a poor start, after ASEAN leaders’ official visit to the White House saw hardly any relevant policy decisions, and Biden’s stingy pitch of $150 million to ASEAN economies. Based on that example and Biden’s difficult political situation at home, the stakes for his trip to Asia were low. But reality has proved the pessimism…
J.P. Marín-Arrese | Biden needs to bolster his tarnished presidency before the upcoming elections. Failing to deliver his electoral promises for the less well off, he faces the grim prospect of losing control of the Chambers. His economic record seems appallingly lacklustre as inflation is eroding incomes of most American households. Moderate Democrats allied themselves with Republicans to dump bombastic plans to provide widespread social benefits. Growth and jobs are…
Amnesty International | Commenting on the court ruling on tennis star Novak Djokovic’s appeal against the Australian government’s decision to cancel his visa, Graham Thom, Amnesty International Australia’s refugee adviser, said: “Djokovic has glimpsed for a moment what refugees have been experiencing for years because of the Australian government’s shameful policies on refugees. For example, Mehdi Ali, a 24-year-old Iranian held in the same hotel as Djokovic, the Park Hotel,…
“We don’t say the last word because we are right. We are right because we say the last word” (A US Supreme Court Justice). The UN Human Rights Committee has ruled that Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón did not have “access to a fair trial in the Franquismo case – where he was acquitted – and the Gürtel case,” the corruption case affecting the Partido Popular (PP), which, Garzón, then judge…
“Cuba is not a democracy”, the Spanish Prime Minister replied when asked if Cuba is a dictatorship. The debate, in Spain, was sparked by a leader of UN Podemos, partners in Sánchez’s government, who denied that Cuba was a dictatorship. When asked, the new government spokeswoman, Isabel Rodriguez, declined to answer… Until Sánchez went off on a tangent, as he has done so many times before, claiming that “it is…
G7 unites on China, climate change and pandemic. G7 leaders met this weekend for Joe Biden’s first summit as US president. Their first item on the agenda was to reach unity in relation to China, achieving agreement on a global infrastructure project (Build Back Better World) in response to China’s One Belt, One Road project, although without explicitly mentioning it in the text. In addition, the seven countries also committed to implement measures against anti-competitive practices by Chinese industry and agreed on a communiqué on human rights violations in Xianjing. The G7 also criticised China and demanded an investigation into the origin of COVID-19.