Democratic Republic of the Congo: The next emerging economy?

With positive macroeconomic indicators, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is aspiring to be an emerging country by 2030. To achieve this goal, the country appears to be more willing to implement significant reforms.

During his last visit to the DRC in March 2015, IMF deputy managing director David Lipton said he was impressed by the country’s economic progress over the past five years. This is fair; despite a difficult security environment, the country has managed to increase its average growth rate from 2.8% in 2009 to 8.7% in 2014, recording the third fastest growth rate in the world this year.

Αυτοδυναμία Κάμερον - «Προχωρά το δημοψήφισμα για Ε.Ε.»

Ο Ντεϊβιντ Κάμερον επιστρέφει στην Ντάουνινγκ Στριτ, μετά τη νίκη των Συντηρητικών στις εκλογές της Πέμπτης, παρά τις αντίθετες προβλέψεις των δημοσκοπήσεων και του exit poll. Παράλληλα, τρείς απο τους ηγέτες των ηττηθέντων κομμάτων - Μίλιμπαντ, Φαρατζ και Κλεγκ - υπέβαλαν τις παραιτήσεις τους. 

Οι Συντηρητικοί εξασφαλίζουν αυτοδυναμία, μιας και ξεπερνούν τις 326 έδρες που απαιτούνται για να μην αναζητήσουν κυβέρνηση συνεργασίας.

The New Face of Israel’s Hard Right

Last summer, thousands of Israelis shared a Facebook post published in Hebrew by little-known right-wing lawmaker Ayelet Shaked.

An excerpt from an unpublished article written by pro-settler Uri Elitzur, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s onetime chief of staff, who passed away in May 2014, the post was published in English translation on a blog on the anti-Zionist website ElectronicIntifada.com. The author of the blog post claimed that the 631-word excerpt called Palestinian children “little snakes” and accused Palestinian mothers of raising their kids to become violent martyrs. And, the blog post said, it read as “a call for genocide” of the Palestinian people.

A five-point plan for Cameron to win an EU referendum

The politicians hardly mentioned Europe during the campaign, yet the most important consequence of Britain’s general election will be a referendum on EU membership. Prime Minister David Cameron plans to negotiate reforms to the EU and then hold an in-or-out referendum before the end of 2017. What does he have to do in order to win a referendum on keeping Britain in the club? What is he likely to ask for, in terms of reform? And what would be the impact of ‘Brexit’ on the rest of the EU? 



The voters defied opinion polls and delivered a shocking result: the centre-right Conservatives performed much more strongly than expected in England, the centrist and pro-EU Liberal Democrats lost most of their seats, and the Scottish National Party (SNP) won almost every seat north of the border. The anti-EU United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) won 13 per cent of the votes but only one seat. The centre-left Labour Party – which according to the final opinion polls had a good chance of forming a government – finished almost a hundred seats behind the Conservatives.

Developmental revolution or Bretton Woods revisited?

On July 15, 2014, the presidents of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa formally agreed to found the New Development Bank (NDB), a new multilateral development bank. Three months later, in October 2014, China announced the founding of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), to be established by the end of 2015. 

The launch of the NDB and AIIB have captured global attention and headlines and are generally considered emblematic of the rising strength of emerging countries and the parallel stagnation if not decline of the traditional western economic powers. The NDB and AIIB are seen by many as a direct challenge to the multilateral institutions of the post-war, Bretton Woods global financial order led by the World Bank, IMF and regional multilateral development banks.