Economic Pulse - June 2023 The largest global banking crisis since 2008 emerged in March this year, resulting in US regulators shutting down and selling three small- to mid-sized banks over the span of five days. In the same month, in Europe, troubled Swiss giant, Credit Suisse was take-over by a rival bank in a [...]
Economic Pulse - May 2023 2023 was off to a flying start, with the first quarter of the year being a generally positive one for Namibia in terms of economic and financial developments. On the economic front, preliminary National Accounts data from the Namibia Statistics Agency show that Namibia recorded real GDP growth of 4.6% [...]
Economic Pulse - March 2023 The advent of new technologies has often raised concern that new, often more efficient ways of doing things, will lead to job displacement. This fear has not been limited to blue-collar jobs, as white-collar jobs have been equally "threatened" by the introduction of technologies such as calculators on computers. In [...]
Economic Pulse - February 2023 Digital nomad visas have been rising in the popularity as the number of people working remotely has increased in recent years. Remote working became a necessity during the pandemic-induced lockdowns and most of us have had to adapt to getting the job done outside of the customary office environment. This [...]
Economic Pulse - January 2023 Share repurchases have been a hotly debated topic, particularly in the developed world, for a number of years now, and yet it somehow still remains one of the most misunderstood and maligned corporate actions. The reason why the subject is topical in Namibia right now is the fact that two [...]
Economic Pulse - December 2022 Looking back, 2022 was a year of ups and downs. The optimism that pervaded the start of the year faded as the Ukraine conflict escalated. Tightening monetary policy and rampant inflation in major developed economies renewed the uncertainty of economic recovery though mid-to-late 2022. And, as at the time of [...]
Economic Pulse - October 2022 Nuclear power has long been controversial, with proponents citing its potential to decarbonise the world and opponents raising concerns about safety and waste. However, as the need to address climate change grows more urgent, nuclear energy is gaining new support as a clean source of green energy. Nuclear plants do [...]
Economic Pulse - September 2022 Over the pas couple of decades a lot has been done in terms of improving health care systems around the world. The number of low- and middle-income countries aspiring to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) has also been rising. At present, over 70 nations, mainly in the developed world, operate [...]
Financial theory in the traditional sense assumes that investors act rationally, using all available information to make investment decisions. If we also assume that markets are frictionless (no tax and no costs), we should have a situation where markets are perfectly priced. What you pay for a stock should be what it is worth. In [...]
It is probably quite normal to first move into a state of panic when threatening things catch you by surprise. A potential next step, when the dust has settled and we can think more clearly, is to focus on what we can do. Finally, we sometimes find comfort in realising that we are not [...]
