GlobalSource Partners | Country Insights

On April 7 Kommersant reported that the video conferencing platform banned its distributors from selling services to the Russian government and parastatal entities in Russia and some other former Soviet nations. Zoom's partner in Russia is RightConf. Sales licenses have been revoked from state ag...

Russian currency sliding

CIS POLITICS · In Brief · 07 Apr 2021

On April 7 the RUB continued to lose value. It has lost 2% of its value since the beginning of the week and trades at 77.7 to the USD. That is its lowest since November 2020.The probable explanation for the RUB's fall is the heating up of the Ukrainian Conflict. This could lead to more Western sa...

Sugar prices rising in Russia

CIS POLITICS · In Brief · 03 Apr 2021

On March 31 Izvestia reported that sugar factories have suspended sales and deliveries to supermarkets as the sugar sector waits for a state subvention. Food prices have gone up 7.7% in the last 12 months. That is the steepest annual rise since 2016. Living standards are at their lowest in 10 yea...

Floundering in COVID-19’s Third Wave

UKRAINE · Report · 02 Apr 2021

The growing number of COVID-19 cases, the mounting numbers of virus-related deaths, and the return to a strict nationwide lockdown are the top issues these days, while the country’s vaccination effort rolls out at a snail’s pace. Still, it does not look as though Ukraine will face the dramatic ec...

A make-it-or-break-it year

TURKEY · Forecast · 02 Apr 2021 · 1 response

Let’s start with a caveat. In our almost two decades of jointly covering Turkey as the Global Source Partners Turkey team, we’ve never written a quarterly/forecast report amid this sort of uncertainty. As a compromise of sorts, since the key questions in most of our readers’ minds focus on the ve...

GULF WEEKLY: OPEC+ tapers, Saudi plans $3trn capex, Kuwaiti MPs boycott parliament

GULF COUNTRIES · Report · 01 Apr 2021 · 1 response

A skimmable summary overlaid with our analysis and links. Headlines: * OPEC+ will taper by 1.1m b/d and eliminate the 1m b/d in extra Saudi cuts by July. * Coronavirus continued to worsen across the region, with Qatar expected to go into lockdown. * There were hints of a softening in both US...

Follow up to Better Perspectives for Guillermo Lasso

ECUADOR · In Brief · 31 Mar 2021

In the referenced brief, I included two charts that apparently lost their format. I am including the charts here with my apologies.

All charged up and ready to go

INDONESIA · Report · 31 Mar 2021

Recently Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia published a report on the Indonesian electric vehicle industry that underscored its confidence in the Indonesian government's support for the industry, from nickel production for batteries to the prospects of Indonesia's becoming part of the global product...

Fear the wolf and the shepherd

COLOMBIA · Report · 30 Mar 2021

These are times of flawed fiscal calculations, in which projections’ failure to match subsequent reality are having negative consequences. The 2020 budget was heavily under-executed, with more than COP 41 trillion (about 4 pp of GDP) of budgeted monies left undeployed. This is a very poor perform...

Economics: Strong demand abroad but a weak homefront

MEXICO · Report · 29 Mar 2021

Economic results published during March tended to confirm the growing consensus that Mexico’s 2021 economic prospects are looking slightly better, with much of that improvement a reflection of the brighter US outlook that can be expected to spill over on multiple fronts, ranging from increased de...

Politics: Voter preferences remain unclear

MEXICO · Report · 29 Mar 2021

This week candidates can begin campaigning for the June 6 elections at a time when the general context has been trending against the current administration and the partial electoral coalition it is taking into the midterm contests for the lower chamber of Congress. And just in time for the occasi...

Pressure for more emergency aid and other weekly topics

BRAZIL POLITICS · Report · 29 Mar 2021

President Jair Bolsonaro leads the first meeting of the National Coordination Committee for the Pandemic Response. The new Public Tender Law should be sanctioned on Thursday. Wednesday is the deadline for the functioning of the Joint Committee on Tax Reform. This week's Talking Points: ...

Lockdown watch

PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 29 Mar 2021

Metro Manila and 4 surrounding provinces (“NCR plus”) went into the most stringent lockdown classification (“ECQ”[1]) today that will last a week. Checkpoints have been set up, a long curfew (6pm to 5am) imposed and only one person per household allowed to go out for essential procurements. The l...

Russia and the internet

CIS POLITICS · Report · 29 Mar 2021

On March 10 Russia slowed down Twitter for several hours. The aim was to penalize Twitter for failing to remove prohibited content. Putin is keenly alive to the importance of controlling the media. Information warfare is being used more and more by governments, and the keyboard is apparently migh...

4 Ukrainian soldiers killed fighting

CIS POLITICS · In Brief · 29 Mar 2021

On March 27 Ukraine annonced the deaths of the servicemen and that several more were wounded. There was shelling by separatists that killed the soldiers. 19 soldiers have been killed in 2021. Zelensky said he wanted the conflict to be de-escalated. Until now the ceasefire signed in July 2020 has ...