Regional coverage from Latin America to Asia-Pacific, Africa, the Middle East, and emerging Europe. Analysis organized by geography to track institutional developments where they happen.
Policy Brief | Juncture Policy | April 17, 2026 The Decision on the Table Yemi Cardoso arrived at the IMF Spring Meetings in Washington carrying a problem no Sub-Saharan African central bank governor can ignore. In March 2025, a single naira devaluation triggered $25 billion in Nigerian on-chain stablecoin volume in one month. That spike … Read more
In April 2026, a senior deal team at IDB Invest hit a wall while assessing exposure across Peru’s central coast. (This vignette is a composite based on documented deal team accounts; the mechanics are actively playing out across the region.) Chancay was no longer the question it was the precedent. Inaugurated in November 2024, the … Read more
Picture the decision facing an investment officer at a major development finance institution. A $35 million co-financing request is on the table for a regenerative agriculture supply chain program in Tanzania. The commercial partner has capital and platform. The bottleneck is one thing: whether Tanzania’s land registry can generate farm-boundary data sufficient to verify carbon … Read more
Nigeria’s Finance Minister Wale Edun reviewed two financing proposals in late 2025. One came from the World Bank’s IDA team the International Development Association, the Bank’s arm for lower-income countries 18 months into a procurement cycle, with conditions tied to sovereign debt ceilings and environmental compliance audits. The other came from Chevron’s government affairs division, … Read more
When Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb reviewed EXIM Bank’s February 2026 Country Limitation Schedule, the change was unmistakable. Medium- and long-term public sector financing had reopened for Pakistan. Not because the diplomatic relationship had improved Pakistan has been a major non-NATO ally for decades. It reopened because the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility had restored debt … Read more
The Decision on the Table Kenya’s principal secretary for infrastructure is managing the largest investment competition in sub-Saharan African history. A $62.4 billion package for critical minerals development sits on the table. The U.S. offer has conditions. The Chinese offer has a timeline. This is not an isolated negotiation. It is the defining pattern of … Read more
Summary On March 2, 2026, five P&I insurance clubs withdrew war risk coverage from the Persian Gulf. Within 72 hours, the world’s four largest container lines — Maersk, MSC, CMA CGM, and Hapag-Lloyd — had suspended all Strait of Hormuz transits. No navy issued an order. No government formally closed the strait. The underwriters decided, … Read more
Key Takeaways Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline was running at 35% utilization before the Hormuz crisis — leaving 4.5 million b/d of theoretical bypass capacity effectively dormant Goldman Sachs estimated only ~900,000 b/d was actually rerouted in the first four days of disruption, against a theoretical ceiling of 3.6 million b/d on the Saudi line alone … Read more
The Subsidy Trap No Bond Desk Has Priced Kenya’s Finance Minister John Mbadi received two sets of numbers on the same morning last week that together defined an impossible choice. The first: urea at U.S. Gulf ports had jumped from roughly $470 per metric ton to $640-700 within 72 hours of the February 28 strikes … Read more
The $300 Billion Question A Chevron strategic planning team convened an emergency meeting January 4, hours after President Trump announced Nicolás Maduro’s capture. Their Venezuela license—expanded in October 2023 to 200,000 barrels per day—now faces radical uncertainty. If Vice President Delcy Rodríguez consolidates power, the license stays capped and sanctions persist indefinitely. If the military … Read more