For nearly seven years, Vietnam sat on FTSE Russell's watchlist, tantalizingly close to emerging market status but unable to clear the final regulatory requirements. On April 7, 2026, FTSE Russell confirmed the upgrade. Starting September 21, Vietnamese equities will be included in FTSE's global index series
The TAIEX, Taiwan's benchmark stock index, has delivered a 149% gain since the beginning of 2024, and the effects are rippling well beyond trading floors. Approximately 20% of the average Taiwanese household's wealth is now held in equities, a significantly higher share than most developed economies.
Something significant is happening to the architecture of global trade, and it is moving faster than most policymakers anticipated. What is often called deglobalisation is more accurately described as a targeted recalibration. Certain sectors, technologies, and supply chains are being reorganised around geopolitical priorities rather than cost efficiency alone. This
While central banks in Europe, Canada, and parts of Asia were cutting rates through 2025, most African central banks were moving in the opposite direction, raising rates sharply or holding them at levels that make borrowing painfully expensive for businesses and households. In 2026, that divergence is widening. Zimbabwe maintains
The debate over whether American protectionism is working depends entirely on which number you look at and whose analysis you trust. In 2026, both sides of that argument have data. The Trump tariffs represent the largest US tax increase as a percentage of GDP since 1993 and amount to an
Central bank digital currencies are no longer a future concept. In 2026, they are live infrastructure in some of the world's most significant economies, and the gap between leaders and followers is widening rapidly. The Central Bank of the UAE officially launched the Digital Dirham for retail use
The China Plus One strategy has been discussed for years. In 2026, it is no longer theoretical. Manufacturing investment is flowing into alternative production hubs at a pace beginning to reshape trade maps, corporate supply chains, and employment patterns across three continents. India has emerged as one of the primary
The Gulf Cooperation Council states have been discussing economic diversification for over a decade. In 2026, the data is beginning to catch up with the ambition, though the Middle East conflict has introduced risks that were not in any of the original forecasts. The IMF projects Arab economies will expand
The UN's headline growth projection for the global economy in 2026 is 2.7%, a modest deceleration from 2.8% in 2025 and well below the 3.2% average recorded before the pandemic. That number matters, but it conceals a divergence that is shaping economic life very differently
Japan's demographic situation is no longer approaching. It is here. The country's working-age population has been in constant decline, falling 16% from a peak of 87.3 million in 1995 to 73.7 million in 2024. The old-age dependency ratio more than doubled from
Property ownership in Latin America has historically been a privilege of the wealthy or the formally employed. A median home in São Paulo or Bogotá has become increasingly unaffordable for middle-income earners, and most retail investors have had no pathway into commercial real estate at all. A wave of
For most of 2022, 2023, and 2024, European investors were walking away from clean energy funds. Rising interest rates raised financing costs, squeezed profit margins, and slowed project timelines for a sector that depends heavily on debt to build. The average fund in Morningstar's Sector Equity Alternative Energy