The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international business operations has been enormous. As governments implemented entry restrictions and curbed internal freedom of movement, conducting international business became extremely challenging. Unable to navigate through the complex regulations, many companies scaled down or temporarily cancelled their operations. Although the virus will not disappear anytime soon, business...
Lebanon is facing its worst economic crisis. The country’s unemployment rate has risen above 30% and the currency has lost 80% of its value since October. This has had detrimental effects on Lebanese youth’ prospects. As a result, there have been widespread and violent protests which have elevated the security risk environment. In order to...
When looking at the countries across the globe that have been worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, we tend to focus on the number of confirmed cases in a country. While using this unit of measurement provides a good indication of the severity of a country’s crisis, it does not paint a complete picture. If...
On May 13, the Ukrainian parliament adopted an important anticorruption bill that opens up the door for a much needed IMF loan by reforming the banking sector. The IMF loan will be crucial for Ukraine to meet its debt obligations this year and deal with the economic impact of COVID-19. Besides corruption, the country faces...
States are imposing extraordinary travel restrictions to limit the spread of the coronavirus. In the last couple of days, the world has fragmented into national islands. In a majority of the countries, travellers (apart from their own citizens) are barred, either directly or indirectly. Nonetheless, whereas the movement of people has been restricted, the trading...
After last week’s OPEC+ meeting failed to reach an agreement, an oil-war has been started. Although Saudi Arabia has low production costs, its government is highly reliant on oil revenues facing budget cuts. The US faces opposite challenges, where private producers have relatively high costs, the government is not reliant on oil revenue. Russia has...
The Covid-19 virus started in China and has since spread to all continents. In the last 10 days, about a third of total confirmed cases have recovered in China, while in the rest of the world both the percentage of new cases and recoveries grew at a similar rate. As a result, the situation in...
Greater competition between gas supplying countries can be expected over the next decade. Gas is an important fuel in the European energy mix and as such the continent is depended on gas imports. Therefore, gas infrastructure projects are still being developed especially in the Mediterranean where gas exploration has led to new findings of the...
Today, we focus on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and the trilateral meeting on the dam that is taking place today and tomorrow. The dam is highly beneficial for Ethiopia, set to triple electricity output, provide power to 74% of the population and create over 12,000 jobs. For Sudan, the dam will provide more energy...
