Ethiopia’s Beetle Mania: How An Entire Country Fell In Love With Volkswagen’s Quirky Classic
September 8th, 2024
Ethiopia’s enduring love for the Volkswagen beetle is unrivaled. The classic vehicle arrived in Ethiopia during the reign of Haile Selassie. As reported in The Guardian, it remains popular in part because of Ethiopia’s distorted car market, where import duties of up to 200% mean secondhand vehicles are wildly expensive: When Yared Agonafer, an Ethiopian […]
Read more »Djibouti to Offer Ethiopia Exclusive Port
September 2nd, 2024
Via Kenyan Wall Street, a report that Djibouti plans to offer Ethiopia an exclusive port space: In a move that might ease simmering tensions in the Horn of Africa, Djibouti has disclosed that it is planning to offer Ethiopia “100% access” to the Tadjoura port. The access would see Ethiopia directly manage the port, Djibouti’s […]
Read more »Can An Egypt-Led Alliance Block Ethiopia’s Efforts To Secure Sea Access?
August 27th, 2024
Via the Addis Standard, commentary on the potential for an Egypt-led alliance stand in Ethiopia’s way of securing access to the sea: For scholars in the field of political science and international relations, the international realm is basically the realm of balance of power, where states continuously struggle for much power and sustainable peace. The […]
Read more »How Ethiopia’s currency float and IMF deal are powering economic reform
August 22nd, 2024
Via The Africa Report, an article on how privatisation, foreign property ownership, and a new stock exchange expected to transform the nation’s economic landscape as the pace of reform in PM Ahmed Abiy’s government regains momentum. Ethiopia is gearing up to relaunch its economic reform agenda after floating its currency and securing a $3.4bn IMF […]
Read more »A $2 Trillion Reckoning Looms as Ports Become Pawns in Geopolitics
August 21st, 2024
Via Bloomberg, an article on how ports have become pawns in geopolitics, as these gateways to global trade face costly conversions to retool in new era of rivalry, automation and green energy: For centuries, control of the world’s biggest shipping centers helped expand empires, spark and settle wars, ease poverty and build middle classes while […]
Read more »Why Ethiopia Ended Half a Century of Currency Control
August 16th, 2024
Via Bloomberg, a report on why Ethiopia ended half a century of currency control: For the past half-century, Ethiopia tightly controlled the official value of its currency, the birr. That changed in July, when unmanageable debts and dwindling foreign reserves forced the government in Addis Ababa to liberalize the exchange rate regime. The decision, which […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.