When US President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing on May 14, it was his first visit to China since 2017. The summit that followed on May 14 and 15, 2026, covered trade, Taiwan, the war in Iran, and what both governments described as the foundation for a more stable bilateral
South Korea came into 2026 carrying the weight of a sluggish 2025, when the economy grew just 1%, its weakest performance since the pandemic year of 2020. Then the first quarter of 2026 happened, and the mood shifted almost entirely. The economy expanded 1.7% quarter on quarter in Q1
The headline numbers for Sub-Saharan Africa in 2026 are not bad. Growth is projected at 4.1%, the median fiscal deficit has narrowed from 3.4% of GDP in 2024 to an estimated 3.0%, and median public debt improved from 57.2% of GDP to 53.1% between
Brazil made a fiscal commitment. In 2023, the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva presented Congress with a medium-term fiscal framework that included a zero primary deficit target for 2026 and, eventually, a primary surplus of 1% of GDP before the end of Lula's term.
The European Central Bank's decision to hold its deposit facility rate at 2% on April 30, 2026, was widely expected. What was not expected to generate as much attention is the conversation happening inside the Governing Council about whether that 2% will be the bottom of the rate
The Bank of England voted 8 to 1 to keep its benchmark Bank Rate unchanged at 3.75% in April 2026. One member voted to raise rates to 4%. That split says something about where the debate inside Threadneedle Street currently sits. UK inflation has been moving in the wrong
Brazil's economy grew by 3.4% in 2024, which was a good year for the country by most standards. In 2025 that slowed to 2.3%. The World Bank now projects growth of just 1.6% for 2026. That deceleration is not happening in isolation. It is happening
The eurozone economy grew by just 0.8% in the first quarter of 2026, year on year. That figure landed the same day the European Central Bank kept interest rates unchanged for the third consecutive meeting, and together they tell a story about an economy caught between two bad options.
Sub-Saharan Africa entered 2026 on its strongest macroeconomic footing in years. Regional growth came in at an estimated 4.5% in 2025, the fastest pace in a decade. Inflation had been falling consistently. Fiscal deficits were narrowing. Central banks across Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, and South Africa had started cutting
The numbers Ghana is putting up right now are genuinely unusual. Inflation peaked at 54.1% in December 2022, the cedi had lost more than half its value against the dollar that year, and the country's debt-to-GDP ratio had hit 92.4%. By April 2026, inflation
In March 2026, the Bank of Ghana made a bold call. With inflation having fallen from a historic high of 54.1% in late 2022 all the way down to 3.2% in March 2026, the central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by 150 basis points to 14%, the
For a long time, Nigeria's investment story was defined by capital flight, currency uncertainty, and an environment where foreign investors preferred to sit on the sidelines. Something shifted in 2025. Net capital inflows into Nigeria surged by nearly 90% to $23.22 billion, driven largely by foreign portfolio