More people, less water mean rising food imports for Egypt
In the north-west corner of the Nile Delta, Ibrahim Sharaf Al-Dein fires up his diesel-powered pump next to a murky canal only to watch it spew out a yellowish froth.…
Eurozone growth stalls, France lags, deflation threatens
Europe's fragile recovery is stalling, a batch of economic data showed this week, with analysts warning that France, with the eurozone's second-biggest economy, could be slipping into another downturn. Even…
Three queens
THE queen is the most powerful piece on the chessboard. Today, on the ‘chessboard of world politics’ there are three queens: the US, China and Russia. Japan, Germany, India and…
When the battle’s lost and won
In the baking heat of Delhi, the squirrels are lying flat on their belly in flowerpots I had watered in the morning, cooling their bodies with the residual moisture that…
Our long-term nightmare
According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2013-14, the GDP growth rate has crossed four percent, stated to be the highest in the last six years. Not only opposition parties…
Fiction of the failed state
These are familiar questions in Pakistan’s current dark times: is the state failing, has it failed, will it fail? These are all questions that have appeared in ink in Pakistani…
The promise of Pakistan
High growth will rest on the pillars of higher public and private investment and increase in exports from greater competitiveness. Pakistan’s flat exports-to-GDP ratio is a surprise in a world…
Once a model for Africa, Ghana’s economy loses its shine
Rising bond yields, mounting inflation and a weakening currency have taken the shine off Ghana, a country until recently hailed as a model for African growth. An oil boom helped…
In big public push, White House seeks to smooth way for carbon curbs
Last month, Washington's top environment advocate went to the Cleveland Clinic to talk about how President Barack Obama's landmark efforts to crack down on power plant carbon emissions would ease…
Fading eurozone crisis coloured by wishful thinking
Every sign that stricken eurozone countries, such as Portugal, are on the road to recovery is held up as evidence that the debt crisis is fading, but wishful thinking is…
