Asia’s financial services hubs will seek to strengthen cryptocurrency regulations and maintain their balancing act in attempting to minimise speculative and compliance risks.

The 2021 edition of the EIU’s Democracy Index sheds light on continued challenges to democracy worldwide, under pressure from the coronavirus pandemic and increasing support for authoritarian alternatives.

New initiatives by governments are likely to be limited in 2022, as high energy prices and insufficient international funding for developing countries will limit overall progress.

Moon Jae-in of the liberal Minjoo Party has been South Korea’s president since 2017, and his single five-year term will end in May this year.

The political temperature is rising in Kenya ahead of the next parliamentary and presidential elections on August 9th. President Uhuru Kenyatta will step down after serving two terms, intense competition and electoral reforms will spawn new coalitions, and a tight race will elevate political tension.

In EIU’s latest global outlook video, Agathe Demarais, Kate Parker and Matthew Oxenford share EIU’s views on the new German government and the 2022 French presidential election.

The covid-19 pandemic sent the global economy into deep recession in 2020; global GDP contracted by 3.7% (at market exchange rates)—the worst outturn since the 1930s.

Gabriel Boric of the left-wing Apruebo Dignidad (AD) coalition won the second-round run-off presidential election on December 19th, defeating José Antonio Kast of the far-right Frente Social Cristiano (FSC). Mr Boric’s large margin of victory bodes well for governability in the short run, but a cloudy economic outlook, polarised politics and high expectations pose risks for the new president over the medium term.

Economic growth will slow over the next 30 years as some countries reach higher levels of development while others struggle to diversify their economies.

The start of the year 2022 marks the second anniversary of the coronavirus pandemic. As we embark on our third pandemic year, the EIU’s team of experts has taken a look back at some of the many projections we got right over the past two years.