The Knowledge to Decide

Germany is the fourth largest global economy today. Its exports amounted to EUR107 billion in March 2015 – an all-time high since the 1950’s. Despite being the only European nation with a strong manufacturing base and rising employment rate, will Germany succeed to drive Eurozone’s stagnant economy? And what lessons does Germany’s economic success hold for the rest of the world? Germany’s resurgence With the second lowest unemployment rate in the European Union (EU) at 5.3 per cent, Germany’s economy has survived many setbacks. The economic success dates back to the Industrial Revolution due to the early adoption of coal production and rail transportation. Moreover, the fall of the Berlin Wall – the reunification of West and East Germany – and the expansion of the EU created huge market opportunities for Germany. Often regarded as the ‘Sick man of Europe’, Germany had almost lost hope of returning to rapid economic growth, undergoing recessions in 2003 and a dismal 1.2 p...

The Middle East is sometimes viewed as an economic failure story. But at the Western fringe of that region, a new global economic powerhouse is rising – Turkey, the transcontinental country positioned strategically between Asia and Europe. With a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of USD786 billion for 2014, the nation opens its doors to investment across multiple sectors. Will Turkey continue to be a safe haven for investment and can it be a springboard into Europe and the Middle East? Turkey’s steady progression The 1980’s marked a turning point in Turkey’s history. The liberalizing reforms by visionary Prime Minister, Turgut Ozal opened up the economy. Even though the latter years were marred by economic disruption, the Kurdish conflict and a banking crisis, Turkey’s economy consolidated its gains after 2002 when the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came into government. The AKP have since made concerted efforts to institute structural reforms, new fiscal policies and macroe...

On the morning of 24 April, 2015 a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.8 on the Richter scale rocked Nepal. With 8 million people affected and more than 4,000 feared dead, the estimated cost of reconstruction is more than USD5 billion. The scale of devastation is bound to have an economic impact on one of the poorest countries in the world, affecting industries as diverse as tourism, energy, agriculture and infrastructure. What will it take to get Nepal back on track? The level of devastation The damage wrought by the earthquake was felt across the breadth ot this small country. It damaged buildings in the capital city of Kathmandu. As a result of the many aftershocks, buildings and temples collapsed, with roads splitting wide open due to cracks. Heritage sites such as Kathmandu’s Dharahara Tower (known as Bhimsen tower) – a 19th century structure with nine floors – collapsed, with at least 50 people stuck in the rubble. Dozens of historical buildings, monuments and temples...