Middle East

Continuing political unrest in Egypt ahead of this month’s presidential elections claimed another 11 lives and injured another 160 people in the streets of Cairo last week, media outlets reported; over the weekend, hundreds of protestors were arrested. And yet, Egypt retains its crown as the best-performing emerging market of 2012. There are plenty of [...]

The energy market has been drawing some comfort from repeated comments by Saudi Arabia – the world’s largest crude oil exporter – that it stands ready to boost its out output to compensate for any shortfalls if Iranian shipments are cut in response to U.S. and European sanctions. As the chart below shows, both Iranian [...]

This may have been a bumpy year, one that not all of us are eager to revisit. But we hope that the series of charts that follow will give new perspective on the events of 2011 and fresh insight into the economic landscape within which we will be navigating come January 1, 2012. Unquestionably, the [...]