Opinion

COMMENT: Turkey's opposition targets ruling regime's illusion of market stability in Nikkei op-ed

bne IntelliNews April 4, 2025

Shadow economy minister says economic governance hollowed out with institutions reduced to managing appearances. “What persists is not policy. It is performance art for bond markets,” he adds.

HALLIGAN: Trump's tariffs are either madness or genius – it could go either way

Liam Halligan in London April 4, 2025

Donald Trump has referred to tariffs as “the most beautiful word in the dictionary”. And now the US President has unleashed the most aggressive surge in American trade protectionism in almost a century.

ING: Trump’s Tariffs - Europe’s worst economic nightmare just came true

ING April 3, 2025

A US 20% reciprocal tariff on the European Union will hurt. It's worsened the eurozone's short-term outlook. Now, so much depends on European governments to push through with their planned fiscal stimulus and reforms to strengthen domestic economies.

BEYOND THE BOSPOROS: Regime panicky over opposition call for “No shopping day”

Akin Nazli in Belgrade April 2, 2025

English rock band Muse, meanwhile, scrap Istanbul concert in solidarity with Imamoglu protesters.

COMMENT: Brazil’s Lula builds economic bridges across the Pacific

Ricardo Martins in Utrecht April 1, 2025

Brazil's President Lula boosted ties with Japan and Vietnam during his Asian tour last week, securing aircraft deals, beef markets and partnerships.

COMMENT: South Caucasus offers a potential diplomatic triumph for Trump

Robert Ananyan in Yerevan March 31, 2025

The new US administration wants to become the political team that ends the longstanding conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Emerging Europe risks being “cast adrift” from the West, think-tank warns

bne IntelliNews March 31, 2025

Ongoing geopolitical realignment accelerated by Trump’s return to office could plunge Emerging Europe into a cycle of instability and regional conflict, says a paper published by the ECFR.

BEYOND THE BOSPORUS: Damp squib

bne IntelliNews March 29, 2025

Turkey’s opposition seriously lacks imagination, as it showed today by moving the Free Imamoglu, Give Us Democracy street campaign to the periphery, much to the regime’s delight.

Istanbul under unprecedented siege, says Turkey’s Nobel prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk in Guardian op-ed

bne IntelliNews March 28, 2025

Notes: “In my 50 years living in Istanbul, I have not seen as many so-called security measures on the streets as I have over the past few days.”

COMMENT: Jailed Istanbul mayor Imamoglu writes op-ed for The New York Times

bne IntelliNews March 28, 2025

“Democracy’s fate depends on the courage of those who refuse to remain silent when institutions crumble,” he writes from his prison cell.

COMMENT: Europe’s outlook improves as Trump makes Ukraine conflct progress

bne IntelliNews March 28, 2025

European leaders are alarmed at the increasingly warm relations between US President Trump and Putin, but economists are encouraged as even a “quick and dirty” ceasefire deal to the Ukraine conflict will buoy flagging CEE economies.

COMMENT: What impact will a raft of protests across the Emerging Markets have?

bne IntelliNews March 26, 2025

A spate of protests across several emerging markets is reigniting concerns over economic stability and long-term financial health. From Turkey to Indonesia, social unrest has flared up that threaten countries with weak fundamentals.

COMMENT: Is the EU going to fall apart?

Ben Aris in Berlin March 21, 2025

Is the EU about to break apart under the stress of taking over the full weight of supporting Ukraine, the need to rearm and the hundreds of billions that must be invested if it is to become competitive again?

BEYOND THE BOSPORUS: Imamoglu’s construction company also ‘detained’

Akin Nazli in Belgrade March 20, 2025

Investigators appear to have set out to sell the idea of a web of corruption and misdeeds to the public as they attempt to justify taking Erdogan’s main rival into custody.

ASH: Trump delivers on Putin’s plan to ensure Ukraine fails

Tim Ash of BlueBay Asset Management in London March 20, 2025

Trump’s peace plan is proceeding at breakneck pace but the problem is that it is Ukraine’s neck that is on the line here.

COMMENT: Rail and logistics firms bet on Middle Corridor as key Eurasian route

Fuad Shahbazov in Baku March 18, 2025

As the Trans-Caspian International Transport route grows in importance, rail operators and other companies have committed to boosting traffic along the route.

COMMENT: Meeting protesters’ demands would improve Serbia’s investment climate

Nina Miholjčić Ivković in Belgrade March 15, 2025

Serbian officials have accused protesters of damaging the economy, but meeting the demands for more efficient institutions and a stronger judiciary would improve the investment climate in the long-term.

RAGOZIN: What did we die for?

Leonid Ragozin in Riga March 13, 2025

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, warned that a ceasefire in the Russo-Ukrainian war would be meaningless without security guarantees for Kyiv.

OPINION: CEE infrastructure to take centre stage as Ukraine post-war reconstruction looms

Jozef Hrabina of GeopoLytics March 12, 2025

The war in Ukraine appears to be drawing to a close and Central and Eastern Europe's infrastructure capabilities – or lack thereof – will soon be thrust into the global spotlight.

COMMENT: Chevron’s Venezuela licence is gone. What happens next?

Elias Ferrer in Caracas March 12, 2025

Trump's shock termination of Chevron's Venezuela licence threatens to destabilise an already fragile economy. The move could trigger currency collapse, disrupt global oil markets, and push more Venezuelans into exile.

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